One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting in the den of grandfather’s house on Saturdays in the fall.

He is in his easy chair, a cup of coffee or a Coke on the end table next to him, smoke from one of his cigarettes wafting to the ceiling. I am sitting on the floor or the couch, proudly wearing a UGA football jersey, absent-mindedly holding a football I shift from one hand to the other. On the radio, crackling through the AM static we are listening to a Georgia Bulldogs football game.

Larry Munson’s gravelly voice blasts through the air bouncing up and down, bringing us along for a rollercoaster ride where even a gain of three yards is epic. In my imagination, I see players blocking and tackling and getting hit before crushing into the grass, dirt stuck in their helmets, green stains on their silver britches.

And then Larry sends it to the sidelines and a voice as affable as an old friend and as pleasant a September breeze after summer’s heat begins speaking

The voice is a sunny contrast to Munson’s doom and gloom and charged up announcing.

It is good-humored.

Its accent is true to the South - heavy on the vowels and easy on the consonants.

It is the voice of Loran Smith.

Unfortunately, that voice won’t be heard from the sidelines this season.

Loran, the venerable sideline reporter for the UGA radio network, announced last week that after 36 years, he was retiring. Yes, he’ll still be part of the pregame show, will still be involved with the university and will still pen great columns, but on Saturdays he won’t be there to give us updates on the game.

Good for Loran. At 72, he deserves a chance to watch the game from the press box.

But, for the rest of us it is not such a welcome moment.

Simply, it marks the end of an era.

An era of classic radio football.

See, the way I see it, Loran along with his former partner Larry Munson are two of Georgia’s greatest poets.

Their eye for detail and love of the game are second-to-none and their run of 30-plus years was one of the finest in broadcasting.

They described things like the ominous clouds in the distance, the trickling in of fans over the bridge right before kickoff, the real heat on the sidelines and how a strong wind ruined a good cigar before the game.

You simply can’t get that on today’s television broadcasts when broadcasters are flown in the night before and handed an index card with the name of the stadium and the pronunciation of the players names on them.

Loran, in particular, had a special connection to the players.

He didn’t rely on a stat sheet, but really knew the players and made a special effort to connect them to the fans.

He could tell you how much Joe Cox loved to fish, why, at a young age, Greg Blue chose to play defense, instead of offense and what the “real tone” was of the locker room during the halftime speech.

By the end of a season listening to Loran you could know everything from what food a lineman liked to why a quarterback really chose to come to Georgia, instead of another school.

And he wasn’t just putting on for the radio. I’ve talked with Loran on the phone several times and had the honor of meeting him in person a few years ago.

He’s as genuine as they come.

He’s an encyclopedia of Georgia sports.

He’s built an entire career on positivity.

As my Uncle Mike once put it, “That man has done more goodwill in Georgia than almost anyone else.”

I can’t argue with that.

I’ll still tune in this fall and I have nothing but good wishes to the new crew on the Bulldog network.

But, truth is, I’ll miss you, Loran. You’re a one-of-a-kind gentleman who made a special connection and contribution to Georgia fans through the years.

I know I’m not alone.

Mark Wallace Maguire is director of magazines for Cobb Life magazine, Sandy Springs/Dunwoody Life magazine and Cherokee Life magazine. He can be reached at mmaguire@cobblifemagazine.com