ATHENS, Ga. — Editor's Note: A version of this story previously ran on 11Alive.com ahead of both the Green Bay Packers vs. Atlanta Falcons NFC Championship Game as well as past University of Georgia football games.
All eyes are on the University of Georgia after their victory in the College Football Playoff National Championship against Texas Christian University at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
Any time the University of Georgia football team is in the national spotlight, many across the country start to wonder two things: 1) Isn't that the Green Bay Packers logo, or 2) Who had the "G" logo first -- the NFL team or the Bulldogs.
We found out the answer for you.
A Packers team equipment manager under legendary coach Vince Lombardi came up with the team's helmet logo in 1961. He designed the shape of the logo to represent a football and the G to mean Green Bay.
A couple years later in Athens, Georgia, Vince Dooley was redesigning the team's uniforms, including changing the helmets from silver to red, according to the school. His idea was to have a black G on a white background on the helmet.
John Donaldson, a newly hired backfield coach, volunteered his wife, Anne, to help with the redesign. Anne had a degree in commercial art from the university, and created the G logo as we know it today, matching Dooley's "forward looking" vision he had for the G.
While the Georgia's G dimensions and colors were different, the university still sought approval from Green Bay to use the logo. The Packers granted it. A year later, Grambling State also designed a G logo for its helmet, and the Packers also granted the school permission.
Georgia's G designed in 1963 is slightly slimmer compared to the Packers' G. It has remained the same since, while Green Bay's logo was slightly altered to have a gold border in 1980.
So no finger pointing, Packers fans. Georgia didn't copy the Green Bay G, and even if they did, Green Bay let them.