Six years ago, in an ESPN.com article on the importance and prevalence of the Waffle House on college football Saturdays in SEC and ACC country, former Georgia All-SEC linebacker Greg Bright said that team sports are good training for working at the legendary 24-hour restaurant that scatters, smothers and covers the Southeast and beyond.
“It’s kind of scary a little bit, the parallels. On a daily basis, you’re coaching people and developing people,” Bright said in the piece.
Bright should know. For nearly 25 years, he has worked for Waffle House, first as a restaurant manager and later on the corporate management side. Bright is currently serving as Recruiting Director; he’s responsible for the hiring, training, sourcing and managing of Operations Managers in and around the Atlanta/North Georgia area.
Many of us got to know Waffle House in college, often ending a festive night there with some eggs and hash browns, or whatever your after-midnight meal of choice was. Bright was no different. In one of his first interviews, he recalled, “I said, I didn’t even know you were open during the daytime. I don’t know if that joke got me the job or not, but it didn’t hurt anything,” he said, laughing.
Bright is one of the three 2023 recipients of the Arch Award, presented by the UGA Athletic Association and Piedmont Bank. The Arch Award highlights and celebrates former Bulldogs excelling in the business world, whether they are entrepreneurs and business owners or, like Bright, working at high levels in major corporations. The other recipients are former women’s basketball player Tina Taylor and swimmer Samantha Arsenault Livingston. All three will be honored at the Georgia-Missouri game at Sanford Stadium on Nov. 4.
“When I found out, it was an honor,” Bright said of receiving the Arch Award. “And then when you go back and see the other recipients and who they are and what they’ve achieved, it really makes you feel good about some of the things that you’ve accomplished. It’s a tremendous honor.”
When asked to name his proudest professional achievement, Bright didn’t hesitate before answering: “The development of people. The reason I do what I do is because I enjoy seeing people grow and develop. Over the last 24 years of my career at Waffle House, that’s kind of what I’ve been in charge of.”
If you’re reading this in the Southeast, there’s probably a Waffle House close by. Maybe you went there for breakfast, or stopped by at 2 a.m. to cap off a fun evening. According to Waffle House’s website, there are 1,733 locations covering this region alone, plus another 190 in and around Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma, 146 in the Kentucky-Indiana-Ohio region, and a few dozen more scattered around the country, from Arizona and Colorado to Virginia and Pennsylvania.
It’s a question Bright gets a lot, but it is one that, given his position, has to be asked: What is Greg Bright’s favorite order at Waffle House?
“I have a bacon Texas cheesesteak plate, scattered, smothered, covered, chopped. That’s my go-to,” he said.
From 1994-97, Bright was a go-to player for Georgia’s defense. He started every game but one in his career, and his 453 career tackles rank second all-time at UGA, behind only Ben Zambiasi’s 467 stops from 1974-77.
Bright, a former star at Colquitt County High School in Moultrie, Ga., played two seasons under head coach Ray Goff and two under Jim Dornan. He made the SEC All-Freshman team in 1994 and was voted second-team All-SEC in 1996 and ’97, as well as team captain his senior year.
Bright and Georgia head coach Kirby Smart were teammates and standout defensive players for several years, and they played with quarterback Mike Bobo, now Smart’s John and Alice Sands Offensive Coordinator. What Smart has achieved as the Bulldogs’ coach, winning two straight College Football Playoff national championships and a run of 24 straight wins heading into Saturday’s Florida game, isn’t a surprise to Bright.
“Not at all,” Bright said. “I think the great thing about what we have in Athens right now is, it’s homegrown. … This current coaching staff, you know they’re motivated, and it goes beyond just the wins and losses for them. There’s a sense of pride, I think, and I think that is one of the things that’s separating them from others right now.”
When Bright first started at Waffle House, he had no idea what was coming, that, as of now, he’s spent roughly half of his life working for the iconic eatery. After nearly a quarter century with Waffle House, he’s proud of the work he’s done and grateful for the opportunity.
“I tell you what, when you’re 23 or 24 years old, you have no idea that you’re going to spend the next 24 years of your life doing this. I had a full head of hair when I started,” he said with a big laugh. “There was no way of knowing that I was going to be a lifer, but as I continued to work within the walls of Waffle House and learned the culture and what seemed important, it all seemed to match. It’s been a great fit.”
