Bobby Dodd played role in success for Tennessee Vols, Georgia Tech
When they honor Bobby Dodd during Tennessee’s season-opening game against Georgia Tech on Monday in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta, it will be a point of pride for both schools.
After all, Dodd was an All-America quarterback for the Vols when Bob Neyland had the Tennessee program reaching for the stars. His time on campus stretched from 1928-30, as the Vols compiled a 27-1-2 record, led by the “Flaming Sophomores of 1928.”
UT fans sang the praises of “Hack, Mack and Dodd,” better known as Gene McEver, Buddy Hackman and Dodd. Fans also wore buttons that read “In Dodd We Trust.”
“In his three years at Tennessee,” sportswriter Grantland Rice wrote, “he figured in only one losing game and on any number of occasions his keen directing strategy saved the day.”
Dodd and Georgia Tech
Dodd had a 57-year association with Yellow Jackets, through stays as coach (1945-66), athletic director (1950-76) and alumni association consultant until his death on June 21, 1988.
He compiled a 165-64-8 record (.713) in 22 seasons and guided Tech to a 31-game winning streak from 1951-53, including a 12-0 season and the national title in 1952.
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Dodd was inducted into the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame in 1993, honoring his coaching career. Already inducted for his playing career at Tennessee (1959), Dodd joined Amos Alonzo Stagg and Bowden Wyatt as the only inductees selected as a player and a coach.
Since 1976, the Bobby Dodd coach of the year award has been given to a coach whose team excels on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. Georgia Tech’s Grant Field became part of Bobby Dodd Stadium in 1988.
'One of the greatest games'
Dodd and Wyatt, both Neyland protégés, were on opposing sides on Nov. 10, 1956, at Grant Field in a gameselected by The Associated Press in 1961 as the No. 2 game of all time. In a classic battle of field position and defense, No. 3 Tennessee defeated No. 2 Tech, 6-0.
“That really was one of the greatest games ever played,” Dodd would say later. “I thought we were going to win 7-6. We had Tennessee backed up, but (Johnny) Majors won the game again with one call. I had our safety playing back to watch for a quick kick but Majors ran for 16 yards. My safety moved up quite a bit and then Majors quick-kicked 68 yards to our 12. We couldn’t get out of that hole.”
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The game was played so close to the vest that Dodd, facing fourth-and-4 at the Tennessee 29, decided to punt rather than go for the first down.
Asked about Dodd not going for the requisite yardage, Wyatt, always the outspoken competitor, had a cogent response: “Because he wouldn’t have made it.”
Dodd was 9-7-1 against Tennessee during his coaching career, with two memorable moments among the games.
When Tech defeated Tennessee 30-13 in 1949 on Shields-Watkins Field, Dodd told reporters, “My season is a success if I don’t win another game.”
News Sentinel sports editor Tom Siler recounted another story after the 1963 contest, won by Tech 23-7, also in Knoxville. When Tech wide receiver Ted Davis didn’t come back to the huddle, but stayed in his flanker position and was wide open for a touchdown pass, Tennessee partisans called it a maneuver that was “unethical if not illegal.”
When Bob Woodruff, the interim athletic director at Tennessee, complained to the media, Dodd’s response was to the point, calling Woodruff, his one-time assistant at Tech, “the worst public relations athletic director in the United States.”
Dodd was also selected to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 1966.
Whether playing at Tennessee or coaching at Georgia Tech, Dodd certainly had a profound influence on the landscape of college football.
Tom Mattingly is a freelance contributor.