The Georgia Bulldogs won the 1981 Sugar Bowl 17-10 over Notre Dame, securing a national championship for the 1980 season. Things have changed a bit since that historic game in the Louisiana Superdome (though that building still exists under a different name).
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Here are some examples of what the world was like on Jan. 1, 1981:
- Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was 5 years old.
- Alabama head coach Nick Saban was 29 years old.
- The Billboard Top 100 No. 1 song was “(Just Like) Starting Over” by John Lennon.
- The top film at the U.S. box office was “9 to 5″ starring Dolly Parton (34), Jane Fonda (43), and Lily Tomlin (41).
- The median home price was $47,200.
- A new car cost around $7,000.
- A McDonald’s Big Mac cost $1.60, and the relatively new Happy Meal was $1.10.
- A VCR could cost around $1,400.
- The CD player and camcorder were brand-new tech that would be shown off for the first time at the Consumer Electronics Show that year.
- “Space Invaders” on Atari was the biggest console video game.
- Jimmy Carter was in his final days as president (Ronald Reagan was sworn in on Jan. 20, 1981).
- President Joe Biden was 38 years old and was in the middle of his second term as U.S. Senator.
- The Atlanta region population was 2,233,324 on the 1980 census, less than half what it would be on the 2010 census (5,729,304).
- The population of Georgia was 5,463,105 on the 1980 census, just over half the 2020 census (10,711,908).
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