No need for union under Coach Bobby Dodd
I read with interest and amusement about Indiana University’s decision to move their contracts with student athletes to four years. Such was Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Dodd’s policy in the late 1950s. I probably would have played very little at Tech if an All-American high school center from Mississippi had not gotten hurt right before he came to Atlanta in the summer of 1955. Coach kept him on scholarship as he did any student-athletes who ran into such difficulty as long as they made satisfactory academic progress and did not do anything to discredit themselves or Georgia Tech along the way. I played a bit as a back-up center during my sophomore year but became a left guard when Maxie Baighan came from Alabama and became the next All-American center at Georgia Tech. There would be no need for student-athletes anywhere to be talking about “unionization” if they were moving through their college experiences in programs based upon the beliefs and values that Coach Dodd held and the level of responsibility and accountability he expected from his student-athletes.
FOSTER WATKINS, VININGS
Liberal spending doesn’t equal results
CNBC, never recognized as a bastion of conservative journalism, recently named Georgia as the best state in which to do business. “FOUL” cried Jay Bookman, “Georgia lowballs its future,” Opinion, July 6. CNBC also said we had the best transportation infrastructure in the country. Bookman asks how that is conceivable, given that we rank 49th in per capita transportation spending. It should be obvious that big government spending doesn’t necessarily mean good results. Ordinarily, Mr. Bookman would be trumpeting Georgia’s accolades, but this is an election year and his real question is: How can Georgia be doing so well with a Republican governor and Republican legislature?
BILL JUKINS, DUNWOODY
Stadium replaces historic church
It was a very sad picture in today’s paper (“Church demolition underway,” Metro, July 8): a beautiful old church being demolished, in a city with so few historic buildings.
PRISCILLA H. PADRÓN, ATLANTA
