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Thursday, November 27, 2008
Tech-Georgia rivalry steeped in history
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For one thing, you never saw the coach wearing a headset, looking like some kind of astronaut. Bobby Dodd and Wally Butts both walked the sideline wearing snap-brim felt hats.
The Georgia Tech team reached Athens by train, boarded at Terminal Station. The rest of the entourage loaded on at the Emory University station. Later, passenger trains were sent into retirement, and getting to Athens was an ordeal by steering wheel, and so was the return trip. Was, still is.
If you lived in Waycross or Whigham, you thanked your good fortune for such a kickoff hour as this. High noon in Sanford Stadium. All of us are at the mercy of some television lord who pulls the strings, and tells them when to kick off from Boston to Corvallis. Ah, those days on the train, though, they were grand, whisking through the countryside. But then, if you were in the writing business, you had to be quick in the press box, or you might miss the choo-choo back home.
That brings up the memory of the “trestle gang.” The east end of Sanford Stadium was open until, I’d guess, about 1991 — I don’t remember the year, but years aren’t important — and with the closure went the “peep seats” on the railroad trestle. A boisterous gang had turned the trestle into their permanent viewing establishment, occasionally interrupted by a freight yard engine, cheerfully tooting its whistle. When the east end of Sanford was enclosed, the gang had one rootin’-tootin’ farewell celebration. Those guys have been replaced in Bulldog lore by the crowd that gathers behind the rightfield fence at Foley Field.
My first season of Georgia-Georgia Tech was 1950, and I won’t swear by this story, but what I’d heard was that Bobby Dodd was in serious trouble. His team went into the Georgia game in Athens with a record of 4-and-6, and there was much unhappiness among alumni powers with the Tech coaching staff. Expecting defeat, these alums had purchased a new car to present to Dodd as they showed him the exit.
It was a mean, tough game with serious penalties on both sides. Tech ran through a string of quarterbacks until Joe Salome, later an Atlanta attorney, had his turn. Then Darrell Crawford , just a rookie, came in and scored on a sneak. Tech held on and won 7-0, against overwhelming odds, and back in Atlanta, instead of a farewell Buick, Dodd was presented a congratulatory Buick.
It was the second game in a winning streak than Tech extended to eight games. Dodd totally re-structured his coaching staff, and not until 1957, when Theron Sapp crashed into the end zone, did Georgia win again, 7-0. Sapp’s score is described as a run, though it was more a collapse across the goal line. He had carried the ball six out of seven plays in a row. When an ancient alumnus knocked on the Butts’ hotel room door later that evening, a member of the family greeted him with, “Well, it has been eight years since we saw you the last time.”
Then there were the two seasons when John Dewberry found himself in the cross-hairs of the Bulldog nation. He had taken leave of Vince Dooley’s team in 1983 and transferred to Georgia Tech, where Bill Curry was trying to get a grip on things. Dewberry said he left because he wanted to play quarterback, not simply be Herschel Walker’s servant. Danged if he didn’t beat the Bulldogs twice, and to this day is held in high disregard in Athens.
Then there were the years the game was played under lights at Grant Field, beginning in 1971, four times on Thanksgiving Day, which had long been the date of an annual freshman game, by far the most notable freshman game in the nation. When freshmen became varsity eligible, this old charity classic died. Never did they play under lights in Athens, but they did kick off on a Friday afternoon in Sanford Stadium in 1994, a game that ran into the evening.
Neither team has matched Tech’s 8-game winning streak since, but twice the Bulldogs have won seven in a row, and has a streak alive now, built on the misfortunes of Chan Gailey. Odds favor them in Athens this weekend. In keeping with the times, both Mark Richt and Paul Johnson will be outfitted with headsets, and their offensive operations are something that would have looked like an invader from outer space when Dodd and Butts were at the wheel.
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