Hey Boomers! The man who Killed GT football was...

ciegetanks

ciegetanks

Damn Good Rat
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Bobby Dodd.

My granfather is also a Tech Alum. He graduated in the late fifties and tells me that Dodd was so embarassed by the Cumberland game that he called games and used substitution to keep scores close.

In the 60's, when the NFL became a more viable career path many recruits avoided Tech because they would not acquire the stats needed to get drafted.

Also Bobby Dodd is the one who left the SEC. For twenty years we were athletically homeless with no automatic avenues to Bowl Games and National Championships.

The majority of the decline in Tech Football took place between 1963 and 1983.

Oh, one last thing: in 1963 when we left the SEC COFH was 27-26-5 in our favor. Since leaving the SEC GT is 14-42 against the Athens Community College.

So, old people who venerate Dodd, remember he was Dodd not God. His idea to go independant is what tanked GT football.
 
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ciegetanks said:
Bobby Dodd.

My granfather is also a Tech Alum. He graduated in the late fifties and tells me that Dodd was so embarassed by the Cumberland game that he called games and used substitution to keep scores close.

In the 60's, when the NFL became a more viable career path many recruits avoided Tech because they would not acquire the stats needed to get drafted.

Also Bobby Dodd is the one who left the SEC. For twenty years we were athletically homeless with no automatic avenues to Bowl Games and National Championships.

The majority of the decline in Tech Football took place between 1963 and 1983.

Oh, one last thing: in 1963 when we left the SEC COFH was 27-26-5 in our favor. Since leaving the SEC GT is 14-42 against the Athens Community College.

So, old people who venerate Dodd, remember he was Dodd not God. His idea to go independant is what tanked GT football.
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Yeah. If we had stayed in the SEC Grant Field would be 98,000 seats filled to capacity every Saturday and we’d be operating on a $300 mil / yr football budget just like Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Because it just matters more in The SEC.
 
Who tf are you yelling at? Old people in general or a dead person?
 
I've never seen someone so shamelessly tout a response thread. I don't know whether to feel sorry you got triggered by Boomer-grade internetting or legitimately impressed

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ciegetanks said:
Bobby Dodd.

My granfather is also a Tech Alum. He graduated in the late fifties and tells me that Dodd was so embarassed by the Cumberland game that he called games and used substitution to keep scores close.

In the 60's, when the NFL became a more viable career path many recruits avoided Tech because they would not acquire the stats needed to get drafted.

Also Bobby Dodd is the one who left the SEC. For twenty years we were athletically homeless with no automatic avenues to Bowl Games and National Championships.

The majority of the decline in Tech Football took place between 1963 and 1983.

Oh, one last thing: in 1963 when we left the SEC COFH was 27-26-5 in our favor. Since leaving the SEC GT is 14-42 against the Athens Community College.

So, old people who venerate Dodd, remember he was Dodd not God. His idea to go independant is what tanked GT football.
Click to expand...
'tanks, I don't disagree you at all, but I think the decision to go independent needs to be contextualized. Back in the day, there were no limits on scholarships; back in the '50s the SEC voted to limit total number of schollys to 140 and sign up to 45 per year. Well, Bama and the rest of the SEC would sign their full 45 and run off ("process") any players who got hurt or didn't cut the mustard. Dodd would only sign 35 or so and never ran anyone off (one of the reasons his players would run thru walls for him) or pulled their scholarship for any reason.

Dodd disagreed with the practice and correctly felt it gave the rest of the SEC and unfair advantage over Tech, not to mention preying on the student-athlete (at term that was far more true then than now, at least at GT).

It was the right decision at the time, but in the long run did turn into a disaster as Dodd didn't have the skills to navigate the rocky waters of being an independent.

Back in the day, it was not uncommon for a venerated football coach to be granted the AD job as a reward after years of service. During Dodd's tenure as AD was the beginning of the AD position becoming more of a CEO, fundraiser and administrator instead of just a head cheerleader and coach picker. Unfortunately, while he was a great coach, he was poorly suited for the role he needed to play at that time in football history.
 
GEETEELEE said:
'tanks, I don't disagree you at all, but I think the decision to go independent needs to be contextualized. Back in the day, there were no limits on scholarships; back in the '50s the SEC voted to limit total number of schollys to 140 and sign up to 45 per year. Well, Bama and the rest of the SEC would sign their full 45 and run off ("process") any players who got hurt or didn't cut the mustard. Dodd would only sign 35 or so and never ran anyone off (one of the reasons his players would run thru walls for him) or pulled their scholarship for any reason.

Dodd disagreed with the practice and correctly felt it gave the rest of the SEC and unfair advantage over Tech, not to mention preying on the student-athlete (at term that was far more true then than now, at least at GT).

It was the right decision at the time, but in the long run did turn into a disaster as Dodd didn't have the skills to navigate the rocky waters of being an independent.

Back in the day, it was not uncommon for a venerated football coach to be granted the AD job as a reward after years of service. During Dodd's tenure as AD was the beginning of the AD position becoming more of a CEO, fundraiser and administrator instead of just a head cheerleader and coach picker. Unfortunately, while he was a great coach, he was poorly suited for the role he needed to play at that time in football history.
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I agree there were serious philosophical differences between Tech and the SEC (read Bear Bryant). And there was a serious personal dispute between Dodd and Bryant steming from a dirty play that ended a Tech player's career.

So yes, there were good reasons to leave the SEC. However, there was this other Southern Conference filled with dissatisfied SEC schools including two that we played annually anyway that was more academically focused and whose champion had an automatic bid to the Peach Bowl, in Atlanta.

Why didn't we join the ACC in 1964? We would've done to them in the sixties and seventies what FSU did to the ACC in the nineties.
 
ciegetanks said:
Bobby Dodd.

My granfather is also a Tech Alum. He graduated in the late fifties and tells me that Dodd was so embarassed by the Cumberland game that he called games and used substitution to keep scores close.

In the 60's, when the NFL became a more viable career path many recruits avoided Tech because they would not acquire the stats needed to get drafted.

Also Bobby Dodd is the one who left the SEC. For twenty years we were athletically homeless with no automatic avenues to Bowl Games and National Championships.

The majority of the decline in Tech Football took place between 1963 and 1983.

Oh, one last thing: in 1963 when we left the SEC COFH was 27-26-5 in our favor. Since leaving the SEC GT is 14-42 against the Athens Community College.

So, old people who venerate Dodd, remember he was Dodd not God. His idea to go independant is what tanked GT football.
Click to expand...
1963, huh?
What else was happening in the US, and more specifically in the South, around that time that just might have affected the landscape of college football?
 
ElCidBUZZingFAN said:
That poster who only starts threads after an oldie Tech player dies isn’t going to like this thread at all.
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There's a lot of truth in all of this, if you're referring to me. I certainly understand the frustations..... and BTW, I am not one of Dodd's Boys, rather a Carson Refugee/Survivor. I post those items because most of you are not on the Letterwinners e-mail chain, so you'd almost never learn of said passings otherwise.

Many on here forget, if they ever knew, Dodd's best AD moves were keeping John O'Neill as the GTAA Business Manager & hiring John McKenna as the senior Asst AD. They kept things afloat financially until Dodd retired as AD & The Hill, by then headed by Joe Petit who wanted no part of D-1 football, brought in Pepper Rodgers' buddy, Doug Weaver (from Southern Illinois - he left us for Michigan State), in 1976 to be AD. Dodd also tried to hire/promote someone other than Bud Carson, but Pres Harrison over-ruled Dodd.

Petit + Weaver = Disaster.

It wouldn't be until Homer Rice replaced Weaver in 1980 that the ship began to be righted a decade later. Petit is his own case study in (mis)management.
 
ciegetanks said:
Why didn't we join the ACC in 1964?
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I don't really know, but I suspect the ACC was at the time considered to be a "lesser" conference (even moreso than now) and Tech wanted to keep its traditional rivals on the schedule. Pretty sure the ACC had a similar scholly limit.
 
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