Article - how Atlanta became the CFB capital

savbandjacket said:
Apparently Dodd is also the father of the defeatist attitude that too many of our fans have.
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Dodd's Luck said:
About the middle of the season (1966), Dodd knew he was going to quit. "I just could not compete with those damn state universities", he said. . . . "They could take these same boys that we couldn't take, who wanted to come and play for me. And it just broke me down.

"I couldn't beat 'em. You can just outcoach 'em some of the time, even when they have better players. But you can't outcoach 'em all of the time, brother. Better football players will beat you."
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There it is, the "defeatist attitude" in Dodd's own words.


A general comment, not directed at sbj: I will never understand why some Tech fans will act like all we have to do is recruit better/coach better/Dodd better and GT will return to consistent winning ways, especially when Bobby Dodd himself thought it wasn't going to be possible.

The state of GT foot ball is not like it was in the 70's. I believe that the roller coaster ride we get now is a feature, not a bug. Do I want the program to compete and win at a high level? Hell yes. But I am never going to understand those fans that hang out over at Jim's site and shit on nearly everything that happens within the program hoping that the Dodd years will come back.
 
My attitude is this:

Tech is the alpha and omega of college football for me. To encourage a coach to leave for greener pastures is actively harming Tech’s interest in terms of program stability and having a good coach stay put.
 
ClydeBrick said:
I really hated disliked Curry for his comments when he left (and taking credit for some of the players on the 1990 team during an in-game interview during The Sting), I only warmed back up to him after reading Dodd's book where Dodd explained (in Braine like fashion) why Curry should have taken the job.

It will always be Grant Field to me.

Also, öööö E$PN for not mentioning that the 1928 and 1952 teams are considered MNCs as well.
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Well it was a lot of Curry's players. Also, Curry's players won a Natty at Bama under Stallings after he left there. And GSU gets to a bowl game a few years after he leaves there as well!

Great recruiter, only a decent coach?
 
donsue said:
With the advent of football factories all around him, and the incoming integration
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Can I get some education on the above. Admittedly I'm, not too familiar with Dodd's attitude towards integration and its impact on GT.

Are you suggesting that once other schools decided to integrate, Dodd realized the good times were up? Or he was decidedly against integration?
 
In regards to Dodd, I think that for some, perfect is the enemy of the good, or in this case, the great. Whatever his mistakes, he's on our Mount Rushmore and we'd be crazy not to embrace his legacy. Plus, you can't judge a historic figure by the knowledge available today. Forces were at work that he could neither control nor predict what their long term effects would be.
 
BigChooch0405 said:
Can I get some education on the above. Admittedly I'm, not too familiar with Dodd's attitude towards integration and its impact on GT.

Are you suggesting that once other schools decided to integrate, Dodd realized the good times were up? Or he was decidedly against integration?
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The next paragraph from what I quoted from Dodd's book a few post above:
Dodd's Luck said:
The impending racial integration of southern universities and southern football also figured into his decision. Initially, that would only further hamper the football program at Tech. Many of the black players who would have become available to previously segregated southern football schools had had separate, but hardly equal, educations. Thus, many of them would not be prepared academically for Tech, either for admittance or for doing the schoolwork. So Tech would be at a further recruiting disadvantage.
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As to his personal views on the subject, I am not sure. However, Dodd took GT to play an integrated Notre Dame team in 1953 , played in the first integrated bowl game (Sugar Bowl 1956) and Dodd, as Athletic Director, was at GT for the fist African-American QB (Eddie McAshan) start in a major college in the southeast in 1970. The 1956 Sugar Bowl caused quite a shit storm back here in Georgia IIUC.

The CFB world was changing in 1966, and Atlanta had a lot of non-race related changes coming too.
 
BigChooch0405 said:
Can I get some education on the above. Admittedly I'm, not too familiar with Dodd's attitude towards integration and its impact on GT.

Are you suggesting that once other schools decided to integrate, Dodd realized the good times were up? Or he was decidedly against integration?
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It had absolutely NOTHING to do with his attitude about anything. In fact, Dodd never had any problem playing against integrated teams when others did. He simply knew that the bigger state universities would throw the calculus books at those kids with even more fervor.

Not directing this at you, but it absolutely flabbergasts me how Tech fans will get on here and ridicule not only one of their very own, but also a magnificent coach and mentor to men who helped shape what Atlanta is now. Amazing!
 
savbandjacket said:
If Dodd’s attitude about Tech was such that he encouraged our coaches (who were also alums) to take jobs elsewhere so they could be “big time,” I see absolutely no reason why his name should be on our stadium. He should get the same recognition as Alexander - a courtyard.
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He was encouraging a friend to take the most distinguished and revered job in the profession. Dodd is by far the best thing ever to happen to Georgia Tech football. To name the stadium after him was the least we could do.
 
savbandjacket said:
I must have missed where Curry went to ND.
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Ha, yes ND was probably the most distinguished head coaching job at the time still although Curry was a few years removed from replacing the most successful coach in the sport. What University has the most championships now? Where does the highest paid college coach of all time coach at?
 
I got no problem with what Dodd did or said. He probably should have gotten the AA board to make the final decision about pulling out of the SEC (if he didn't). But we are all pussies these days.
 
Old-Fashioned UGA Hater said:
He was encouraging a friend to take the most distinguished and revered job in the profession. Dodd is by far the best thing ever to happen to Georgia Tech football. To name the stadium after him was the least we could do.
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I would give this a hundred likes if I could. Only an idiot would trash the greatest thing Tech ever had
 
I think this article just cements the GTAA plea....we have to recruit more across the country - where the notion of going to a top 10 academic school and what are we for graduating millionaires? We definitely should use Calvin as the poster child - we create top student athletes. The problem in the South is everything is all about college football....and unfortunately we have to win to attract the local talent because the factories can sell the NFL dream (even though WRs should come to us hah). Once you leave the South, education, history, culture come into play. I miss when we used to have local rap artists doing our in between plays for the defense...what happened to all the way turnt up? Little things like that help sell the program. While I'm not the biggest Johnson fan, we have to get athletes to execute in his system and other coaches who are 110% behind Tech none of this wishy-washy bullshit.....

Maybe..just maybe sometime in my lifetime I will get to see a UGA home win......been waiting since 2001......
 
savbandjacket said:
If Dodd’s attitude about Tech was such that he encouraged our coaches (who were also alums) to take jobs elsewhere so they could be “big time,” I see absolutely no reason why his name should be on our stadium. He should get the same recognition as Alexander - a courtyard.
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Dodd was a man of enormous ego. It was a trait that made him an all-American quarterback, and a great coach. There is an undeniable component of making Bud Carson his successor to preserve his legacy. Just like Vince Dooley being followed by Ray Goff.
 
Old-Fashioned UGA Hater said:
He was encouraging a friend to take the most distinguished and revered job in the profession. Dodd is by far the best thing ever to happen to Georgia Tech football. To name the stadium after him was the least we could do.
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Dodd was the best thing ever to happen to Georgia Tech football, and a case could be made that he was the best thing ever to happen to Georgia Tech, period. He was a factor in the perfect storm of Atlanta's rise as a city, a communication and technology hub of an entire region. His excellence in sports tapped a burgeoning market that, for the first time since reconstruction, could beat its chest as a bona fide winner. His relentless PR extolling the academic prowess of his players, while indeed self-serving, it spread the reputation of the Institute throughout the entire country. For a decade or more, Georgia Tech was the place to be, the place to go, and was establishing itself as a partner in the industrial Renaissance of the New South. Even our rivals had to acknowledge: "those brainiacs can play football."
 
Yukonwreck said:
Dodd was the best thing ever to happen to Georgia Tech football, and a case could be made that he was the best thing ever to happen to Georgia Tech, period. He was a factor in the perfect storm of Atlanta's rise as a city, a communication and technology hub of an entire region. His excellence in sports tapped a burgeoning market that, for the first time since reconstruction, could beat its chest as a bona fide winner. His relentless PR extolling the academic prowess of his players, while indeed self-serving, it spread the reputation of the Institute throughout the entire country. For a decade or more, Georgia Tech was the place to be, the place to go, and was establishing itself as a partner in the industrial Renaissance of the New South. Even our rivals had to acknowledge: "those brainiacs can play football."
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Well said. For the brainiacs on here that think his name should be taken off the stadium, I offer two things:
1) His record in the 50s and early 60s was nothing short of amazing: he won 8 in row over UGA, won a NC, for a long period of time absolutely dominated Georgia, Bama, Auburn, LSU, Tenn, and Florida, and literally made Tech a national powerhouse.
2) If you look at how most of his players excelled after Tech, many were the ones that literally shaped Atlanta and the Southeast.
There is a reason his name is on the Dodd Award.
 
BigChooch0405 said:
Can I get some education on the above. Admittedly I'm, not too familiar with Dodd's attitude towards integration and its impact on GT.

Are you suggesting that once other schools decided to integrate, Dodd realized the good times were up? Or he was decidedly against integration?
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I am not suggesting that, but the facts would suggest it. Dodd, born in rural Virginia in 1908 to parents who were likely born in the 1880's, probably held strong beliefs on social issues that were quite different than yours or mine. When he said the state universities could sign players that Tech couldn't, it is not a stretch to decode that as referring to African American players. He never said he was unwilling to recruit them, but the academic bar was and is very high. How did he compete in recruiting in the 1950's, but not in the 1960's? What changed? It isn't rocket surgery. My conclusion has always been that his decision was not racist, just pragmatic. But part of that is because I want it to be that way.
 
killerB said:
From the time I've spent reading ST I know there are a lot of guys who have actual real memories of Dodd, but what if his name was stripped off the stadium and replaced with Coca-Cola or something else to bring in advertising dollars to help the program. "X" Stadium at Historic Grant Field. He has a statue. He has a coaching award with is name. Lots of other Dodd stuff. Let the GTAA make some marketing money and fuel the program back to perennial power. Might take some heat initially, but if the money is well spent a few extra wins will make it all forgotten. That how it works, right? Winning cures everything!
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I like it.
 
smokey_wasp said:
Even Savannah was more important throughout much of history. Sherman burned Atlanta for good measure, but Savannah was the prize and Lincoln's Christmas gift.
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Savannah didn't get burned down because the city leaders met Sherman outside of Savannah and paid him off. Anyone who knows Savannah history knows that.
 
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