In a Memphis home, the famous photos of Georgia Tech's "Mouse" dropping Alabama's "Elephant" in 1952 have come down.

Jake Rudolph, the tiny defender who embodied Tech coach Bobby Dodd's philosophies before building upon them in his 39-year, 302-win career as a high school coach, died Sunday at 78 after suffering a recent stroke.

Georgia Tech (ENLARGE)

Jake Rudolph (kneeling) upends Bobby Marlow to keep Alabama from a TD in 1952.

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One of his three sons took the pictures of his famous tackle down to clean them and show them to others before he is eulogized.

The Yellow Jackets were SEC champions in 1951 and 1952, undefeated both times, and mythical national champions the second year — the year of "Little Jakie" Rudolph's urgent and unlikely stop.

It has pained Darrell Crawford, senior quarterback of the '51 team, the calls that former teammates Ray Beck, Glenn Turner, George Morris and Rudolph have died the past couple of years. Yet he warms to reminisce.

"Jakie was what Coach Dodd called a safe player, very few errors," Crawford said. "He would play a person who had those attributes over a person who was a better athlete because Coach Dodd believed you won games by making fewer mistakes.

"I could see that [Jakie] would have made a good coach."

Rudolph grew up in Clarksville, Tenn., about 45 miles northwest of Nashville, but was hardly recruited. He spent a post-graduate season at Darlington in Rome for exposure. He would land at Tech, and be knocked out — and into Tech history — at once.

Alabama led Tech 3-0 late in '52 and faced fourth-and-goal from the Jackets' 4-yard line. The Crimson Tide's Bobby Marlow, a bigger back than most, had a shot at the end zone.

Up came Rudolph, down went Marlow, knocked out was Rudolph, and — after the Jackets scored a touchdown later to win 7-3 — Tech went to the Sugar Bowl. It was called "the $125,000 tackle" because the Sugar Bowl paid each team that sum. A win there over Ole Miss scored the school's third mythical national title.

"We had photos in the house, the paper had a frame-by-frame of the tackle," said David Rudolph, his son. "I need to clean it up. My dad was so proud of that."

Crawford, a Marietta subcontractor, said, "Jakie was extremely upbeat, very affable. Our big tackle, Lum Snyder, nicknamed everybody and called him 'Mouse.' Marlow probably thought he was going to run over Jakie. One of my guys said today that had to be a million-dollar tackle."

Rudolph spent time after college in the Air Force, stationed in Germany. Back in the U.S., a career as a salesman didn't take, so he coached. He won seven games in his only season at Darlington, and he took over at Memphis University School (MUS). His record there from 1959-97 was 295-119-4, including a state title, two runner-up finishes and 10 district titles.

One of his players was Fred Smith, founder of FedEx. Another was John Cady, who later coached for Rudolph and is an MUS assistant.

He'll eulogize Rudolph, whose visitation will be today from 5 to 8 p.m. at Memorial Park Funeral Home in Memphis. His funeral will be at Kingsway Christian Church at 7887 Poplar Ave. in Germantown, Tenn., Thursday at 11 a.m.

"Jake was humane. He loved his players and was ahead of his time," Cady said. "I do what I do — I'm a football coach — because of him. He saw in his own sons the opportunity to mold young men, and he did it with them and us."