If Jack Griffin ever felt pressure before a football game, he never let it show. Even before a big bowl game.
The coach, who amassed an 18-season career with Georgia Tech coaches Bobby Dodd and Bud Carson, was always steady, always cool, calm and collected, said his daughter, Carey Leigh Griffin of Woodstock.
"He was always levelheaded and easygoing," she said. "Attending Georgia Tech football games was my whole childhood, and it was a great childhood."
Jack John Sanders Griffin of Decatur died Sunday of natural causes at Emory University Hospital. He was 83.
No services are planned. Southcare Cremation Society and Memorial Centers in Marietta is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Griffin was a basketball and football standout at Atlanta's Boys High. He was offered football scholarships to attend Clemson University and Tech, but chose the latter. He played for Mr. Dodd in the late 1940s, earned a degree in industrial management and became North Fulton High's athletic director and head football coach after college.
In 1954, Mr. Dodd recruited him to join the Tech staff as an offensive assistant. He served as Dodd's offensive ends coach from 1954 to 1956, and as offensive coordinator from 1957-1966. He was Mr. Carson's offensive assistant and assistant head coach until he left after the 1971 season.
This Tech assistant coach helped Mr. Dodd and Mr. Carson amass 118 wins and 10 bowl appearances, according to ramblinwreck.cstv.com. With him, Mr. Dodd had eight bowl appearances in his final 13 seasons; Mr. Carson experienced two bowl games in five seasons.
After he stopped coaching, he ran Griffin Realty of Atlanta for several years and dabbled in various real estate ventures. He and Carlyne Cannon Griffin, his wife of 61 years, were "fishing buddies," who in their younger days used to frequent Lake Jackson on the north side of Tallahassee, their daughter said.
"He had his day as a coach," she said, "and made the best of it."
His wife and daughter are the only survivors.
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