The Days of Dodd

But whatever you do, when you're writing the credits in your book make sure you spell Lucius' name correctly or he'll hunt you down.
 
donsue said:
i posted this in the chat. I am a lifelong Tech fan who grew up in Decatur and noe in North Florida. My idol was, and is, Coach Dodd. I am currently putting together a book about Atlanta and the days of Dodd.

The glorious days of the 50s and 60s on the Flats are my focus. So many wonderful people are helping me and sharing info and stories. From the days of the Dodd/Broyles/Graves teams thru the 66 season are golden. I would love to converse with those who have stories and recollections. Please humor me with any of this....it would be greatly appreciated
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My dad, a Tech grad took me to my first Tech game in the late 40s, when I was a kid. Since then, some rememberances:
donsue said:
i posted this in the chat. I am a lifelong Tech fan who grew up in Decatur and noe in North Florida. My idol was, and is, Coach Dodd. I am currently putting together a book about Atlanta and the days of Dodd.

The glorious days of the 50s and 60s on the Flats are my focus. So many wonderful people are helping me and sharing info and stories. From the days of the Dodd/Broyles/Graves teams thru the 66 season are golden. I would love to converse with those who have stories and recollections. Please humor me with any of this....it would be greatly appreciated
Click to expand...
My dad, a Tech grad, took me to my first Tech game in the late forties, early in Dodd's head coaching career at Tech. Since then, some memories: (1) little Jackie Rudolph's tack of Alabama's Corky Tharp near the Tech goal line on fourth down, perhaps the key play key in Tech's 1951-52 National Championship season; (2) Dodd kicking Billy Teas, our star running back and probably a certain All American, just prior to our huge game with Duke in Durham (we lost 20 - 21 after leading 20 - 0 late in the third quarter); (3) the Chick Granning/Darwin Holt incident while I was a student at Tech (no matter what's said publicly, I have to believe this influenced Dodd's desire to leave the SEC); and (4) 'Revenge of the Nerds': our upset of Alabama in 1962.
 
clapper said:
But whatever you do, when you're writing the credits in your book make sure you spell Lucius' name correctly or he'll hunt you down.
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Ha ha! Lucius Sanford was one of the best college LBers in memory. If Pepper had enough sense to put a few other athletes on defense besides him, he would have had a much longer career there.
 
donsue said:
Ha ha! Lucius Sanford was one of the best college LBers in memory. If Pepper had enough sense to put a few other athletes on defense besides him, he would have had a much longer career there.
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Yeah, too bad he never got to play with guys like Al Richardson, Reggie Wilkes, Don Bessillieu, Mackel Harris, Joe Harris, or Lawrence Lowe...oh wait.
 
I heard Dodd speak once in 1985 in the 'History of Georgia Tech' class as part of the 100th anniversary of GT. Dr Robert McMath wrote a book on the history of GT for the class. He is now at UARK. Anyway, the Alumni Assoc or school may have recordings/transcript of his talk. I am almost sure all guest speakers were recorded.

I remember him being proud that he had won All-American status as a senior at UT because he said, "that was when it meant something as there were only 6 or 7 players recognized due to playing both ways and no second team". I also remember him telling the story of when he was a high schooler taking the train to Vandy with his buddy looking for a school that would take him to play ball. Vandy wouldn't let him in school due to his grades. I think he said they came down to Atlanta and GT said the same thing. But I cant remember. he always stressed his players graduating because he was never a good student and never graduated UT.

He tried to give his reasoning for leaving the SEC and said Bear had promised him the day before the vote that Bammer would vote with GT to rescind the injury/lose scholarship rule. GT would have remained in the SEC if so. But Bear (or the Bammer President) never showed up for the vote. Bear never explained why and he didn't know why to that day. He said the ACC was a better fit for GT anyway. He also talked about thinking GT to be the regional Notre Dame after leaving the SEC. He thought integration (due to the poor schools in GA), the Falcons coming to Atlanta, etc was going to make it much more difficult for GT to compete in the SEC. I thought it sounded contradictory that if Bear had voted to break the tie we would have remained in the SEC. He said Auburn, UGA always voted against what we wanted. He implied that things had not gone the way he had envisioned when he pulled GT out of the SEC.

He had a rep for out punting any of his punters at GT even into his 50s. I spoke to him a few times and he was a very outgoing funny guy. Extroverted for sure. He played tennis over at Bitsy Grant Tennis Center all the time. He won a/some State titles in doubles in the Senior aged categories I'm pretty sure. He was famous for his very unorthodox "bucket lob". We used to watch and laugh when he hit it. In the days of Borg, McEnroe, Lendl, Connors we never saw anyone else hit a bucket lob. Kind of like the Barry's free throws. but he had no formal tennis training and picked it up because he was such a good athlete. Taught himself how to play.
 
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clapper said:
Yeah, too bad he never got to play with guys like Al Richardson, Reggie Wilkes, Don Bessillieu, Mackel Harris, Joe Harris, or Lawrence Lowe...oh wait.
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Sure. Pepper had some athletes at times, but his defenses getting boatraced by good teams was a major reason he got canned, but not the only reason
 
gtyellowjackets said:
I heard Dodd speak once in 1985 in the 'History of Georgia Tech' class as part of the 100th anniversary of GT. Dr Robert McMath wrote a book on the history of GT for the class. He is now at UARK. Anyway, the Alumni Assoc or school may have recordings/transcript of his talk. I am almost sure all guest speakers were recorded.

I remember him being proud that he had won All-American status as a senior at UT because he said, "that was when it meant something as there were only 6 or 7 players recognized due to playing both ways and no second team". I also remember him telling the story of when he was a high schooler taking the train to Vandy with his buddy looking for a school that would take him to play ball. Vandy wouldn't let him in school due to his grades. I think he said they came down to Atlanta and GT said the same thing. But I cant remember. he always stressed his players graduating because he was never a good student and never graduated UT.

He tried to give his reasoning for leaving the SEC and said Bear had promised him the day before the vote that Bammer would vote with GT to rescind the injury/lose scholarship rule. GT would have remained in the SEC if so. But Bear (or the Bammer President) never showed up for the vote. Bear never explained why and he didn't know why to that day. He said the ACC was a better fit for GT anyway. He also talked about thinking GT to be the regional Notre Dame after leaving the SEC. He thought integration (due to the poor schools in GA), the Falcons coming to Atlanta, etc was going to make it much more difficult for GT to compete in the SEC. I thought it sounded contradictory that if Bear had voted to break the tie we would have remained in the SEC. He said Auburn, UGA always voted against what we wanted. He implied that things had not gone the way he had envisioned when he pulled GT out of the SEC.

He had a rep for out punting any of his punters at GT even into his 50s. I spoke to him a few times and he was a very outgoing funny guy. Extroverted for sure. He played tennis over at Bitsy Grant all the time. He won a/some State titles in doubles in the Senior aged categories I'm pretty sure. He was famous for his very unorthodox "bucket lob". We used to watch and laugh when he hit it. In the days of Borg, McEnroe, Lendl, Connors we never saw anyone else hit a bucket lob. Kind of like the Barry's free throws. but he had no formal tennis training and picked it up because he was such a good athlete. Taught himself how to play.
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When I was a kid, my sister dated a Pike, and he ran with Steve Harkey and Tommy "the toe" Chapman. They came over a few times and Tommy taught me how to punt.
 
donsue said:
One of my favorite memories involves the 1966 game with Texas A&M. During the summer, their coach, Gene Stallings (Bear's disciple, former Junction Boy, and a Bama coach on the 1962 team that Dodd beat) told Sports Illustrated how Dodd's teams were soft and not tough. Dodd, the ultimate gentleman of a coach never responded to those comments.

Late in the game Tech scored to go up 31-3. With only seconds remaining, Dodd kicked onside and Tech recovered. Larry Good promptly tossed a bomb for a a TD to win 38-3. It is rumored that he told Stallings he was gonna take his "soft" team over to the Varsity to eat after the game.
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I was at that game with my Dad sitting next to 4 Aggie fans going crazy as they led Tech 3 to 0 at half. Tech laid it on them in 2nd half. Thanks for info concerning onside kick at end of game. Figured Dodd had a good reason.
 
Team B said:
I was at that game with my Dad sitting next to 4 Aggie fans going crazy as they led Tech 3 to 0 at half. Tech laid it on them in 2nd half. Thanks for info concerning onside kick at end of game. Figured Dodd had a good reason.
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And also aTm had beaten GT the year before in ATL. Huge upset and looked like they might do it again. Was scary for a while.
 
gtyellowjackets said:
I heard Dodd speak once in 1985 in the 'History of Georgia Tech' class as part of the 100th anniversary of GT. Dr Robert McMath wrote a book on the history of GT for the class. He is now at UARK. Anyway, the Alumni Assoc or school may have recordings/transcript of his talk. I am almost sure all guest speakers were recorded.

I remember him being proud that he had won All-American status as a senior at UT because he said, "that was when it meant something as there were only 6 or 7 players recognized due to playing both ways and no second team". I also remember him telling the story of when he was a high schooler taking the train to Vandy with his buddy looking for a school that would take him to play ball. Vandy wouldn't let him in school due to his grades. I think he said they came down to Atlanta and GT said the same thing. But I cant remember. he always stressed his players graduating because he was never a good student and never graduated UT.

He tried to give his reasoning for leaving the SEC and said Bear had promised him the day before the vote that Bammer would vote with GT to rescind the injury/lose scholarship rule. GT would have remained in the SEC if so. But Bear (or the Bammer President) never showed up for the vote. Bear never explained why and he didn't know why to that day. He said the ACC was a better fit for GT anyway. He also talked about thinking GT to be the regional Notre Dame after leaving the SEC. He thought integration (due to the poor schools in GA), the Falcons coming to Atlanta, etc was going to make it much more difficult for GT to compete in the SEC. I thought it sounded contradictory that if Bear had voted to break the tie we would have remained in the SEC. He said Auburn, UGA always voted against what we wanted. He implied that things had not gone the way he had envisioned when he pulled GT out of the SEC.

He had a rep for out punting any of his punters at GT even into his 50s. I spoke to him a few times and he was a very outgoing funny guy. Extroverted for sure. He played tennis over at Bitsy Grant Tennis Center all the time. He won a/some State titles in doubles in the Senior aged categories I'm pretty sure. He was famous for his very unorthodox "bucket lob". We used to watch and laugh when he hit it. In the days of Borg, McEnroe, Lendl, Connors we never saw anyone else hit a bucket lob. Kind of like the Barry's free throws. but he had no formal tennis training and picked it up because he was such a good athlete. Taught himself how to play.
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Sounds goofy. He said he would have remained in the SEC, which given the landscape of the NFL coming to ATL would have been best for GT, if the coach at the University of Alabama had taken certain actions!? Insane.
 
texstinger said:
Sounds goofy. He said he would have remained in the SEC, which given the landscape of the NFL coming to ATL would have been best for GT, if the coach at the University of Alabama had taken certain actions!? Insane.
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Bryant had given Dodd his word that he and his President would vote to end the unrestricted recruiting that Bama and others used, which amounted to a glorified "tryout". They basically double crossed him. This, coupled with several other major things, caused Tech's departure.

Dodd felt, due to the narrow curriculum allowed by the Board of Regents, impending integration, and the local competition of pro sports, it was going to be tough to compete in the SEC. in a nutshell, the Braves, Falcons, and a calculus book prompted it
 
Also, in the late 50s the BOR, I think upped the math requirements for all GT students. That, I understand hurt the football team in the late 50s and early 60s (along with losing a couple of key assistants)
 
gtyellowjackets said:
Also, in the late 50s the BOR, I think upped the math requirements for all GT students. That, I understand hurt the football team in the late 50s and early 60s (along with losing a couple of key assistants)
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Correct. The BOR was a surrogate for UGA. All Dodd ever wanted was a couple of other majors (not crip majors, but a little variance). Had he gotten any of that, his teams of the 60s would have been like those of the early to mid 50s, IMHO
 
donsue said:
One of my favorite memories involves the 1966 game with Texas A&M. During the summer, their coach, Gene Stallings (Bear's disciple, former Junction Boy, and a Bama coach on the 1962 team that Dodd beat) told Sports Illustrated how Dodd's teams were soft and not tough. Dodd, the ultimate gentleman of a coach never responded to those comments.

Late in the game Tech scored to go up 31-3. With only seconds remaining, Dodd kicked onside and Tech recovered. Larry Good promptly tossed a bomb for a a TD to win 38-3. It is rumored that he told Stallings he was gonna take his "soft" team over to the Varsity to eat after the game.
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Found this link, Dodd does an onsides kick up 31-3 with seconds left and completes a bomb to end the game, 38-3. Frigging awesome, and fits perfectly donsue's post:
 
donsue said:
Bryant had given Dodd his word that he and his President would vote to end the unrestricted recruiting that Bama and others used, which amounted to a glorified "tryout". They basically double crossed him. This, coupled with several other major things, caused Tech's departure.

Dodd felt, due to the narrow curriculum allowed by the Board of Regents, impending integration, and the local competition of pro sports, it was going to be tough to compete in the SEC. in a nutshell, the Braves, Falcons, and a calculus book prompted it
Click to expand...

I understand all that, and what Harrison / Dodd supposedly said.

THAT is what is crazy. Given the landscape you described, why make it worse for yourself by leaving the SEC. THAT cost us ticket sales as well as inroads to S/As that had come to GT before. This is true in 1963/64 whether people blindly do not want to admit it now.

And back then, there were several teams that did not always play each other in the SEC. If Dodd / Bryant had such a bad relationship all they had to do was stop playing each other.

To base leaving the conference by how ONE other, rival coach did / didn't vote is ludicrous.

And Dodd did not seem to think pro sports would hurt at all. He said, WTTE, " we will ALWAYS sell or 35 to 40,000 season Tix per year.

You can respect the man as a coach, but as an AD - he screwed us.
 
donsue said:
When I was a kid, my sister dated a Pike, and he ran with Steve Harkey and Tommy "the toe" Chapman. They came over a few times and Tommy taught me how to punt.
Click to expand...


Tommy Chapman or Tommy Carlisle? I thought Carlisle did all the kicking back then.
 
texstinger said:
I understand all that, and what Harrison / Dodd supposedly said.

THAT is what is crazy. Given the landscape you described, why make it worse for yourself by leaving the SEC. THAT cost us ticket sales as well as inroads to S/As that had come to GT before. This is true in 1963/64 whether people blindly do not want to admit it now.

And back then, there were several teams that did not always play each other in the SEC. If Dodd / Bryant had such a bad relationship all they had to do was stop playing each other.

To base leaving the conference by how ONE other, rival coach did / didn't vote is ludicrous.

And Dodd did not seem to think pro sports would hurt at all. He said, WTTE, " we will ALWAYS sell or 35 to 40,000 season Tix per year.

You can respect the man as a coach, but as an AD - he screwed us.
Click to expand...
I think BD really thought we could be the ND of the South and we would make it always selling 35 - 40k season tickets. BIG miscalculation.
 
texstinger said:
I understand all that, and what Harrison / Dodd supposedly said.

THAT is what is crazy. Given the landscape you described, why make it worse for yourself by leaving the SEC. THAT cost us ticket sales as well as inroads to S/As that had come to GT before. This is true in 1963/64 whether people blindly do not want to admit it now.

And back then, there were several teams that did not always play each other in the SEC. If Dodd / Bryant had such a bad relationship all they had to do was stop playing each other.

To base leaving the conference by how ONE other, rival coach did / didn't vote is ludicrous.

And Dodd did not seem to think pro sports would hurt at all. He said, WTTE, " we will ALWAYS sell or 35 to 40,000 season Tix per year.

You can respect the man as a coach, but as an AD - he screwed us.
Click to expand...
Hindsight is always 20/20. But 50 years ago, the landscape was totally different. He felt we would start becoming like Tulane or Vandy in thr SEC. You do realize programs like Bama, Auburn and Tennessee were not only signing sometimes in excess off 100 guys a year, but were blatantly and openly cheating. At that time, the service academies and Notre Dame carried a great deal of prestige, and he felt a schedule with those teams, supplemented by playing Auburn and Georgia would give Tech a better shot.

Not only was Tech struggling because of academic requirements, but also in facilities. About the only way to continuing to play at a high level in the SEC was for the BOR to give in some academically, and that wasn't happening. Cliff notes version: Dodd knew Tech was hamstrung, and that was what he thought was best
 
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