A large number of football fans know the Volunteers are to play at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday. Several may not know that Tennessee and Georgia Tech share connections to that famous name.
Long, long ago the late, great Tom Siler introduced me to Bobby Dodd as if I was somebody. Bobby took the bait. He talked. His story starts on page 133 of my second book, ”Legends of the Tennessee Vols.”
I never attempted to summarize his career at Georgia Tech. I know it started in a strange way and went on almost forever.
Here’s some of what I know or at least believe:
True story: At age 12, as a seventh grader, Bobby won money as a sharp-shooter in the neighborhood pool room in Kingsport. One old sailor and cocky young men didn’t take him seriously until it was too late.
Bobby, at 98 pounds, was also a second-team end on the high school football team. He didn’t play much.
At 14, Robert Lee Dodd was the quarterback. Rumor has it that he was gawky, slow and a bit awkward but smart, very smart – in sports.
Bobby was part of the supposedly most one-sided game in high school history, 193-0 over Norton, Virginia. He said if you find that score unbelievable, you should have seen his grades in school. They were more unbelievable in the opposite direction.
Bobby Dodd (George Tech Athletics)
He admitted he wasn’t the least bit interested in academics. He didn’t own a single book. Attendance was the only requirement for eligibility. He was faithful. After five years, he was still two credits short of graduation.
Bobby always thought he was lucky. The kind and helpful principal changed the record. Bobby said the diploma wasn’t luck. It was a miracle.
The young coach at the University of Tennessee, Robert R. Neyland, wanted Bobby’s best friend, Paul Hug, to be a Volunteer. To improve his chances of getting Hug, the coach invited Dodd to come along. Bobby said no thanks, he and his buddy had no interest in Tennessee, they were going to Vanderbilt.
True story: They practiced 10 days with the Commodores before school officials found out about Dodd’s grades.
Neyland heard the good news. He sent an agent on a rescue mission. Dodd and Hug arrived in Knoxville in the early evening, enrolled the next morning and played in a freshman game that afternoon. No questions were asked.
Fast forward just a little, to 98 years ago. Gene McEver, Buddy Hackman and Dodd were hot parts among the Flamin’ Sophomores, the group that launched Neyland’s remarkable coaching career. Two years later, Dodd was an all-American. Back then, when players played offense and defense, only 13 were so honored each season.
Hug became an all-Southern end.
Bobby Dodd (Georgia Tech Athletics)
Dodd was famous as a very shrewd quarterback. He never was fashionable. I’ve seen pictures. In a football uniform, he looked a lot like a potato farmer. His pants never fit properly. He was not sloppy with the football.
In Neyland’s early single wing, the side-saddle quarterback often took the snap. Dodd would hand off to the tailback or fullback or wingback for a reverse. He might throw a pass. Sometimes he punted.
Dodd never did much running. He said a fellow could get hurt doing that. Besides, he might be accused of delaying the game.
Bobby had some good outings. In a 13-0 victory over Vanderbilt (1930), he punted 14 times for a 42-yard average, had nine little runs for 39 yards and was 7-of-12 passing for 159 and both touchdowns. All other Vols combined for 14 yards. Dodd intercepted two passes in his spare time.
In other games in other seasons, McEver was as good or better.
Neyland never acknowledged it but Dodd once or twice won games by inventing plays in the huddle. Teammates loved his daring gambles.
True story: Bobby Dodd remained a gambler while in college. He took suckers’ money on the putt-putt course and at the ping pong table. He seldom lost. Dodd won nine letters in football, basketball and baseball. He wasn’t even close to earning a degree.
Georgia Tech offered him an assistant coaching job in football, $3,000, while he was still a UT “student.” The star on the basketball team took extra clothes when he went to Atlanta for the annual tournament.
He stayed – for the rest of his life – 57 years as assistant coach, head coach, athletic director and consultant to the alumni association.
Valid summations:
Neyland called Dodd “the greatest competitor I ever coached.”
Dan McGugin, Vandy coach, said Dodd was one of the great quarterbacks in football history. This was before Peyton.
Wallace Wade, coach at Alabama, said, “I respected McEver and Hackman, but I feared Dodd.”
Dodd said he never was comfortable at Tennessee. He didn’t even like Tennessee. He said, as Tech coach, he and the Vols became “bitter enemies.”
“I didn’t feel close to Tennessee except in geography.”
Dodd said all the Volunteers wanted to do was win. He insisted football could be fun. Rivals thought him a heretic for his short, soft practices. It blew minds when his Yellow Jackets prepared for a bowl game by playing volleyball.
Dodd also fell out of step with the SEC. He strongly opposed the common practice of over-signing prep stars and discarding disappointments. He didn’t like other schools admitting players his school rejected as academic risks.
A violent incident in the 1961 Tech-Alabama game widened the gap and ended his friendship with coach Bear Bryant. On a fair-catch punt, Tide tough guy Darwin Holt lambasted unsuspecting Chick Graning, Tech captain, with a viscous forearm to the chin. Graning was knocked out. His jaw was broken. Several facial bones were fractured. Five teeth went missing.
Dodd was livid. No penalty flag was dropped. Fans almost everywhere called it a dirty play. The national media condemned Bryant for coaching brutality. The SEC added insult to injury. It did nothing.
For Dodd, that hurt never healed.
Dodd eventually asked the league to alter the so-called 140 rule about the permissible number of football and basketball scholarships. Bryant, for old times’ sake, said he would support a reduction. He didn’t show up at the decisive meeting.
The next day, January 24, 1964, Dodd made the mistake of a lifetime. He led his adopted school out of the Southeastern Conference. Tech sports changed forever. It was a very expensive blunder. Georgia Tech is still paying.
Dodd is in the College Football Hall of Fame as a Tennessee player. He was inducted a second time, as a Yellow Jacket, for his terrific coaching success (165-64-8).
Tech old-timers have long felt naming the campus stadium for Bobby Dodd put him on equal footing with General Neyland (173-31-12). What say you?
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Marvin West welcomes comments and questions from readers at marvinwest75@gmail.com Read more westwords. Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn. Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our free newsletter.
