Looking back: This week in Georgia sports history

1974: Nick Hyder

In 1974, Hyder began his coaching career at Valdosta High School and 41 years ago the Wildcats were blown out at home 40-0 by Thomasville. Valdosta’s record fell to 1-2 and they finished the season 3-7.

But who knew it would be Hyder’s only losing season there? He had come south from West Rome High School where he was 53-12-3 and was taking over a program made nationally known by Wright Bazemore. Hyder actually took the spot of Charlie Greene, who left after two seasons, going 9-1 and 8-2 but not making the playoffs. Greene would have success at Thomas County Central and the Westwood School. But for many, Hyder would become perhaps the greatest high school football coach ever in Georgia. He won more than 300 games in less than 30 years, the only coach in the state to do so. He won three national championships (1984, ’86 and ’92) and seven state titles. Hyder died in a car accident in the summer of ’96 and finished with a 302-48-5 coaching record, winning 249 games in 22 seasons in Valdosta.

A few months after his death, the field at Valdosta High School was renamed Bazemore-Hyder Stadium. Since Hyder has been gone, the Wildcats have had four head coaches and won just one state championship.

1951: Bobby Dodd

On this weekend 64 years ago, Georgia Tech opened what would be an 11-0-1 season and won a SEC championship with a 21-7 win over SMU at Grant Field. The only blemish on the record that season was a 14-14 tie against Duke. Tech beat Georgia 48-6 and knocked off Baylor in the Orange Bowl 14-8 to finish ranked No. 5 in the final Associated Press poll (Tennessee was No. 1). The next season, Dodd and the Yellow Jackets went 12-0, won another SEC title and a share of the national championship with Michigan State. From the eighth game of the 1950 season until the fifth game of the 1953 season, the Jackets didn’t lose a game -- winning 29 and tying twice.

1980: Rex Robinson

On their way to what is still their last national title, Georgia beat TCU 34-3 in Athens. The day was marked by field goals of 31 and 36 yards and four extra points by kicker Rex Robinson, whose career total of 210 points after that game put him No. 1 on the school scoring list, surpassing kicker Allan Leavitt, who had set the record of 209 in 1976. Last week, Robinson and Richard Seymour were named as UGA’s 2015 inductees into the Georgia-Florida Hall of Fame. The 20th annual luncheon will be held on Oct. 30 at EverBank Field in Jacksonville and is part of the Georgia-Florida weekend. Robinson was a two-time All-American at Georgia and made 101 of 102 extra points and finished his UGA career with 269 points, which still places him seventh on the all-time scoring list.

1986: Mick Luckhurst

When the Falcons opened the 1986 season 4-0 for the first time in franchise history, they played the Dallas Cowboys in their third week of the season, just as as the current team will do this Sunday. The game was also in Dallas and the Falcons won that one with a strong fourth-quarter comeback, coming out ahead 37-35. The Falcons scored the last 10 points of the game on a 2-yard run by Gerald Riggs and an 18-yard field goal with less than a minute to play by Mick Luckhurst. It was the third field goal of the day for Luckhurst, who had already hit from 47 and 33 yards. However, it would turn out to be Luckhurst’s toughest season as he had to deal with injuries and hit just 14 of 24 field goals that year. He played one more season and retired as the team's all-time leading scorer with 558 points. That mark was surpassed in 2000 by Morten Andersen.

1996: John Smoltz

"It just shows you how much luck and the breaks you need to put together a statistical season like this. All the records I have are with the help of my teammates."