Georgia Tech Football and the deep South’s first black quarterback

GTFLETCH

GTFLETCH

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In 1970, Georgia Tech & coach Bud Carson set a new standard by starting the deep South's first black QB at a major college program. Eddie McAshan would be a 3-year starter on the Flats and set 17 records during his time in Atlanta. #BlackHistoryMonth

Pretty Good Read
Link
https://yellowjackedup.com/2018/02/14/ge...arterback/

Pretty Good Interview
Youtube Video
 
Plenty of Ashen articles here over the years but thanks.
 
he asked for more than his standard allotment of four complementary tickets to the 1972 Georgia Game and his request was denied. He apparently took exception to this denial and protested by skipping the week of practice. Bill Fulcher, who had taken over as head coach to start the season, suspended McAshan for the game, and then also for the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.
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Somehow I have missed that part of GT history, I did not know he got suspended from the Georgia game. Leaves a bad taste on what was otherwise a good story.
 
He used to watch to many GT games with Dr Sid in the Lettermans Club. I used to love watching him as a kid
 
My BIL grew up in the same neck of the woods in Florida that McShan did and said he was a HS sports phenom down there. Stands to reason I guess but it's interesting to note that he was actually a pretty big get for us. (-also, Jack Williams was the QB of note during the '70 9-3 campaign.)
 
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gtyellowjackets said:
He used to watch to many GT games with Dr Sid in the Lettermans Club. I used to love watching him as a kid
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Eddie used to work at Life College. He showed up on one of my construction sites in 2006 doing manual labor. I went to our EVP, told him Eddie's story, and asked him to see if he could get Eddie a job. Our EVP knew Eddie from Gainesville, Fl. as it turns out. Long story short...our EVP couldn't make it happen. Lacked a certain qualification (it wasn't the degree).
 
Eddie took some bad advice and demanded like 20 tickets to the UGAy game which started the mess. Jim Stevens had to start in his place and we didn't compete despite a nice rowdy fight at one point. Jim was ready for the Independence Bowl however.

I've posted this on here before but I was Eddie's mother's escort at senior day when they couldn't find anyone else.
 
I'll post this here since it is related.

The McAshan affair did have somewhat of an effect on Coach Fulcher but was not the main reason he retired from coaching. During Spring practice of 1973, Bruce Elliott broke his leg and had to stay in the hospital. Coach Fulcher was worrying that Bruce might not be ready to play when the season rolled around when he got a call from the doctor saying that they weren't sure if Bruce was going to make it through the night. I don't remember exactly what it was (maybe a blood clot) but it was touch and go for a while. Bruce did recover but it really took a lot out of Coach Fulcher and he kind of lost interest in coaching. After Spring practice was over, he went to Bobby Dodd and told him that he didn't want to coach anymore. Dodd told him that it was the wrong time of year to quit and that he needed to coach the 1973 season and decide afterwards if he wanted to continue coaching. So, that's what he did.
 
Who was our first openly gay player?
 
I had occasion to meet Eddie at a book signing in Macon several years ago. Nice guy. The book was Tony Barnhardt's 'Southern Fried Football', George Rogers was there with his Heisman Trophy, as well as a bunch of UGA guys. Not many GT folks there, UGA getting a lot of love, Eddie looked kind of lonely. Wish Macon GT fans and alums had been there to support Eddie. I had to split for an appointment or I would have sat with him.
 
I loved watching and listening to Eddie McAshan. When I say “listen to” I want to give props to Al Ciraldo. He was as excited about McAshan as any other Tech QB. How some of the earliest athletes to integrate Southern schools were received was affected by media treatment. Al did a great job in basketball and football seeing only “white and gold”, not “black and white.”
 
No discussion about civil rights and race relations w/r to Tech is complete without a mention of the story of the 1956 Sugar Bowl.

Bobby Grier broke bowl's color line

Here is the td;dr version:

GT and Pitt slated to meet in the Sugar Bowl (GT ranked #7);
Pitt had a very good player Bobby Grier (he was black);
No southern team had a black player on the roster;
One month before the game, the infamous Rosa Parks bus seat incident took place;
Georgia Gov (Marvin Griffin) wrote the Regents to implore them to prohibit GT from playing;
GT students protested against Griffin (hung him in effigy - ironic to say the least);
Pitt students protested - voted to boycott Sugar Bowl if Grier was not allowed to play;
This story on front page of every newspaper in the US;
Grier played; was called for PI (very bad call); Tech won 7-0 b/c of the call;
Little known but ref was from Pittsburgh (he was an SEC ref) - everyone assumed the ref was a racist.
Game known as a historical event in civil rights progress.
 
00Burdell said:
No discussion about civil rights and race relations w/r to Tech is complete without a mention of the story of the 1956 Sugar Bowl.

Bobby Grier broke bowl's color line

Here is the td;dr version:

GT and Pitt slated to meet in the Sugar Bowl (GT ranked #7);
Pitt had a very good player Bobby Grier (he was black);
No southern team had a black player on the roster;
One month before the game, the infamous Rosa Parks bus seat incident took place;
Georgia Gov (Marvin Griffin) wrote the Regents to implore them to prohibit GT from playing;
GT students protested against Griffin (hung him in effigy - ironic to say the least);
Pitt students protested - voted to boycott Sugar Bowl if Grier was not allowed to play;
This story on front page of every newspaper in the US;
Grier played; was called for PI (very bad call); Tech won 7-0 b/c of the call;
Little known but ref was from Pittsburgh (he was an SEC ref) - everyone assumed the ref was a racist.
Game known as a historical event in civil rights progress.
Click to expand...

Even some ugag students protested against Marvin Griffin.
 
To me McAshans best game was the big comeback against Rice for a 36-36 tie. He played great in the 2H to dig us out of a deep hole.
 
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