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

[texstinger]

you have it backwards. Bryant told Dodd (through Curry as a proxy) that he would make sure GT could get back in the SEC. Dodd told Curry to tell Bryant thanks but no thanks it is never going to happen. Bryant wanted GT back in the SEC.

First I have heard that rendition.

 

[texstinger]

'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.

Disagree somewhat. Players are run off, and players get career ending injuries, and players have to go back home because they are in love Emily Sue.

Everybody was playing by same rules.

Lastly, who the hell can not succeed with, in your statement, 35 players a year?

And you do know, as an independent back then, we could sign ANY number to ships we wanted. Really pissed off a lot of SEC coaches.

 

[texstinger]

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.

Simple. In the early to mid 60’s, the ACC in football was considered no better than the Ivy League.

 

[texstinger]

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.

Charlie, I wish to Heaven we could have kept Arthur Hansen.

Disagree about McKenna ( although will concede to your knowledge). I always thought he was more interested in preventing people from parking in front of the old AA than he was in fixing infrastructure problems.

But not sure.

 

[ronricks]

First I have heard that rendition.

This was straight from Curry's mouth on the History of the SEC documentary that aired this summer.

 

[BrentwoodJacket]

So your idea is to fundamentally alter the Institute for the sake of football.

The Institute was fundamentally altered by the Hill. The admission standards and criteria along with the majors offered were changed to the detriment of not only the football program but legacy students and Georgia residents.

 

[GT flunkout]

First I have heard that rendition.

Yeah that runs completely counter to anything we've ever heard and quite frankly doesn't make any sense with the story that Bryant was the one that didn't show up.

GT was the one petitioning to rejoin. Sabotaging our own effort makes zero sense.

 

[DeepSnap]

Charlie, I wish to Heaven we could have kept Arthur Hansen.

Disagree about McKenna ( although will concede to your knowledge). I always thought he was more interested in preventing people from parking in front of the old AA than he was in fixing infrastructure problems.

But not sure.

LOL! Agree about McKenna's VMI demeanor, but who else was there in the AA in our era other than O'Neill in the AA? McKenna was the only Asst AD - something unheard of today with the bloated, self-licking ice cream cone administrations. Since Dodd usually disappeared after lunch to go play tennis with Bitsy Grant, somebody had to mind the store.

And you're spot on about Art Hansen.... just look at what he built at Texas A&M (after his Purdue tour), turning that single university campus into a statewide system of campuses. He is pretty revered in College Station and those parts.