by Sam Hatcher
Dodd believed the hit, which left Graning unconscious with a number of broken bones to his face, a broken nose and a severe concussion, was uncalled for. The hit was so severe that it ended Graning’s football career.
Dodd, by a formal written letter, asked Bryant to suspend the player who he believed had intentionally inflicted injury on Graning. But Bryant refused to do so. Dodd became so angry over the matter that soon afterwards Tech began conversations about leaving the SEC. And in 1963 did so.
Incidentally, Alabama won that game by a 10–0 score and went on to win its first Associated Press National Championship the same year.
72 years after 222–0 game Tech adds Dodd’s name to stadium
In 1988 the Georgia State Board of Regents voted to name the stadium surrounding Georgia Tech’s Grant Field the Bobby Dodd Stadium in honor of another legendary Yellow Jackets coach.
The name change was the first for the Tech football facility since it was named Hugh Inman Grant Field in 1914 two years before the game with Cumberland.
Dodd coached at Tech from 1945 through 1966 compiling a record of 165–64–8. He also served as Georgia Tech’s athletic director from 1951 to 1976 and afterwards as a consultant to the school’s alumni association until his death in 1988. In all his term of service with Tech spanned more than 57 years.
Since Grant Field was built by students at the Institute just prior to 1905, the first season Tech played on the field, much has changed about this hallowed ground for Georgia Tech football and especially its unique location as it sits quietly, except on Saturday afternoons, among rising skyscrapers in downtown Atlanta. Bobby Dodd Stadium/Grant Field is located in the center of Tech’s campus.
When Tech played Cumberland in 1916, the stadium at Grant Field could seat about 5,500. By 1925 the size of the stadium had been increased to a capacity of near 30,000. Since then several additions have been made to the stadium including a project in 1947 in which the West Stands were rebuilt adding about 10,000 seats and a new press box, and in 1958 when the North Stands were constructed increasing capacity to more than 44,000.
In 1962 a second deck was added to the East side that increased seating capacity to more than 53,000. The West Stands were double-decked in 1967 and the stadium’s capacity was raised to 58,121. The stadium’s current capacity is 55,000.
Two games have seen the stadium filled above capacity. In 1973 more than 60,000 watched a game between Tech and Georgia and in 2006 more than 58,000 fans crammed into the stadium to see the season opener between the Yellow Jackets and Notre Dame.
Coach Bobby Dodd
An outstanding college quarterback at the University of Tennessee from 1928 to 1930 playing under legendary coach Gen. Robert Neyland, Bobby Dodd took over as head football coach at Georgia Tech in 1945 following Coach William Alexander.
From Kingsport, Tenn., Dodd went 27–1–2 when starting at quarterback for the Volunteers.
It was in 1930 in a game against Florida when Dodd displayed a genius for creativity that would later serve to compliment his portfolio as a college coach. Gathering his fellow players in the huddle, Dodd began to describe a play he had once used in high school. His instructions were to place the ball on the ground once it had been snapped and to leave it there unattended and for all players to run in one direction away from the ball. The center was told circle back behind his teammates, pick-up the ball, and head for the goal line. The play worked as planned and the center waltzed into the end zone untouched.
Again the same play was used by Nebraska in the 1984 Orange Bowl against Miami and from that time forward the play was recognized as the “fumblerooski.”
Dodd became so popular at UT that the fans clad in orange created a motto for his play that found its way into some cheers as crowds would chant “In Dodd we trust.”
Wally Butts, a longtime Head coach at Georgia, once commenting on a reputation Dodd had for being lucky said “If Bobby Dodd were trapped in the center of an H-Bomb explosion, he’d walk away with his pockets full of marketable uranium.”
About his luck Dodd responded, “Lucky. Bet your life I am lucky. I’m lucky and so are my teams. It’s a habit. You know, if you think you’re lucky you are.”
Dodd left his head coaching position at Tech in 1967. He was succeeded by Bud Carson.
Game ball auctioned
In 2014, 98 years after the historic match-up between Cumberland and Tech, the game ball used on that day was sold for $40,388 to Ryan Schneider, an Atlanta attorney and 1990 Tech graduate.
Schneider was named the successful bidder and awarded the ball after an online auction was conducted for almost three weeks.
Before the auction began it had been thought that the ball may bring as much as $5,000. One of the highest amounts to ever be paid for a game ball at the time was $26,046. The football in this case was signed by all members of the 1966 Green Bay Packers, winners of the first Super Bowl.
Schneider, who later said placing the winning bid was like “my red car for midlife crisis,” gave the ball to Georgia Tech to be placed on display in the Institute’s athletic department.
The ball was auctioned as a fund-raiser for the LA84 Foundation, a non-profit that funds youth sports in southern California. The foundation inherited it along with a vast collection of sports artifacts from a Los Angeles sports museum opened in the 1930’s, the Helms Athletic Foundation. The ball had been donated to the museum by Bill Schroeder, an avid sports collector who was known to acquire items simply by writing to sports figures to ask for them. As the museum changed locations, the ball was boxed and had been in storage since the early 1980’s, brought out only in 2014 with the LA84 Foundation’s plan to auction it.
Cumberland beats Auburn
While Georgia Tech continued to make strides in football after 1916, Cumberland turned its attention to baseball.
Competing in the NAIA since 1984, Cumberland baseball has been a dominant force under the leadership of Coach Woody Hunt. Coach Hunt is one of only six NAIA coaches to register 1,500 career victories. Through the 2015 season Hunt, a member of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, had posted a record of 1,451–608–5.
His teams have appeared in 12 NAIA World Series and have won national championships in 2004, 2010 and 2014 as well as runner-up finishes in 1995 and 2006.
The Bulldogs program has posted 24 seasons with 40 or more victories, while registering 50 or more wins eight times. Hunt’s 2004 team set a school-record for victories with 59.
Cumberland has produced 64 NAIA All-Americans while 79 players of the legendary coach have signed professional contracts.
For several years Cumberland has scheduled games against teams from major conferences. It hasn’t been unusual for the Bulldogs to be playing Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee, Auburn, teams from the Ohio Valley Conference and other majors on any given spring afternoon.
On March 5, 1986 Woody Hunt’s team, while making a swing through the South played Auburn. Cumberland beat the Tigers 4–2 in the ninth inning. Bo Jackson, Auburn’s superstar first round draft choice, went 0 for 3 with a walk for the day. The win over Auburn remains one of Coach Hunt’s most memorable games.
Bulldogs out. Phoenix in.
Changing a tradition in 2016, Cumberland University made the bold move to rename its athletic teams the Phoenix thus eliminating the name Bulldogs.
School officials explained in making the announcement about the change that Cumberland’s association with the Phoenix began during the Civil War when the school’s administration building was burned by Union troops and a student etched on one of two columns that remained unharmed the word “Resurgam,” a Greek phrase translated “I shall rise again.”
After the fire Cumberland was rebuilt and many said it had risen from the ashes just as the mythical phoenix.
Kappa Sig tradition continues at both schools
Now, years after the game that largely was made possible by a Kappa Sigma fraternity chapter on Cumberland’s campus, the fraternity remains p
rominent on the campuses of both Georgia Tech and Cumberland.
For a while the Kappa Sigma chapter at Cumberland was suspended, while the school was being operated as a private junior college. But once Cumberland’s Board of Trust made the decision to return the school to four year university status, the Kappa Sigs and other fraternities and sororities returned to campus.
KAPPA SIGMA HONOR ROLL - Many of fame in a variety of professions from politics to sports claim membership in the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
Among those of national political prominence are 15 members of the U.S. House of Representatives; Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, Transylvania University; 16 governors and six U.S. Senators.
The roll of Kappa Sig members who have served in the U.S. Senate includes Richard Burr, N.C., Wake Forest; Bob Dole, Kan., Washburn University; Paul Fannin, Ariz., University of Ariz.; Estes Kefauver, Tenn., University of Tenn.; John Tower, Tex., Southwestern University; and John McClellan, Ark.
Other Kappa Sigs of note who worked in political roles include John Ehrlichman, University of California, Nixon White House; David Kendall, Wabash College, Yale Law, attorney for President Bill Clinton; William Gibbs McAdoo, University of Tennessee, U.S. Treasury Secretary; and Larry Speakes, University of Mississippi, President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary.
Topping the list of entertainers who joined Kappa Sig during their college days are Jimmy Buffett, University of Southern Mississippi, and Robert Redford, University of California. Others on this list include Hoagy Carmichael, University of Indiana; Richard Crenna, University of Southern California; Wink Martindale, Memphis State; Bill Anderson, University of Georgia; and David Nelson, University of Southern California.
A partial listing of business leaders inducted as Kappa Sig members includes Ted Turner, Brown University; Alan Mulally, CEO Ford Motor Co., University of Kansas; Mike Eskew, CEO UPS, Purdue; William Hewlett, Hewlett-Packard, Stanford, MIT; Willard Rockwell, Rockwell International, MIT; R.W. Lundgren, chairman Dow Chemical, University of Oregon; Jack Smith, president General Motors, University of Massachusetts; Scottie Mayfield, Mayfield Dairies, Georgia Tech; and John J. Donahoe, CEO EBay, Dartmouth and Stanford.
Kappa Sig members have made a significant contribution to the field of journalism. Among the most celebrated are Edward R. Murrow, renowned broadcast journalist, Washington State College (now university); Sam Donaldson, ABC News, University of Texas-El Paso; Steve Kroft, CBS 60 Minutes, Columbia University; and Lowell Thomas, news commentator, Valparaiso University, Denver University, Chicago-Kent Law School.
Football greats who were or are Kappa Sigs include Tommy Casanova, LSU; Dan Dierdorf, Michigan; Richie Cunningham, Louisiana Lafayette; Howard Harpster, Carnegie Tech; Ted Headricks, Miami; James Kent Hull, Miss. State; Bert Jones, LSU; Greg Landry, Univ. of Mass.; Elmer Oliphant, Purdue/West Point; Steve Owens, Okla.; Dick Schafrath, Ohio State; Brian Sipe, San Diego State; Jerry Stovall, LSU; Brian Young, Texas El Paso; John Michelosen, Pitt.; Richard Cunningham, Louisiana Lafayette; Clyde Scott, Arkansas/Navy; Jim Lindsey, Arkansas; and Jim Benton, Western Mich.
Other outstanding Kappa Sig names associated with sports include for golf from Wake Forest Jay Haas, Robert Wrenn, Curtis Strange, and Lanny Wilkes, and Peter Jacobsen from the Univ. of Oregon. Phil Hill, Univ. Southern Cal., is the only race car driver to be a Kappa Sig.
Several famous coaches are listed as Kappa Sigs including Cam Cameron, Indiana; William Alexander, Georgia Tech; Lloyd Carr, Missouri, Northern Michigan, and Michigan; Fisher DeBerry, Wofford; Lamar Hunt, SMU; Jerry Jones, Arkansas; and Norm Van Brocklin, Oregon.
Cumberland University
Cumberland University, located in Lebanon, Tennessee about 30 miles east of Nashville, was founded in 1842.
Although now a private independent university, the school was started by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and later from 1946 to 1951 was owned by the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
In 1852 Cumberland opened a law school, which in a short time became a highly prestigious venue for the study of law. Cumberland’s School of Law was the first law school west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Due to a number of financial challenges associated with the operation of the law school including a need to add faculty and expand library holdings as required by the American Bar Association in order to maintain accreditation, Cumberland was forced to sell the law school in 1962 to Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where it remains today. All assets of the school were sold to Samford for a mere $125,000.
Caruther’s Hall housed Cumberland’s School of Law
The Cumberland Administration building that was burned during the Civil War
During a period for about 25 years from 1956 to 1981, Cumberland, strapped financially at the time, reverted to a junior college offering associate degrees for students completing a two year course of study.
In 1981 the school’s board of trust voted to return Cumberland to the status of a four year university where today baccalaureate and graduate degrees are offered in several fields of study. Cumberland’s Jeanette C. Rudy School of Nursing is regarded as one of Tennessee’s premier nursing schools.
Distinguished Cumberland alumni include more than 50 college and university presidents; 66 U.S. congressional leaders; 11 state governors; scores of state and federal court judges; two U.S. ambassadors; two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court; and U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull, father of the United Nations.
Dr. Paul C. Stumb, IV, is president of Cumberland University. The fully accredited university has an enrollment of about 1,500 students.
Georgia Institute of Technology
Founded in 1885 as the Georgia School of Technology, the Georgia Institute of Technology, known better as Georgia Tech, is a renowned public university located in downtown Atlanta with campuses in Savannah, Georgia; Metz, France; Athlone, Ireland; Shanghai, China; and Singapore.
The school’s only degree program for some 16 years after its beginning was in mechanical engineering, but in 1901 the curriculum was expanded to include electrical, civil, and chemical engineering.
Currently there are six colleges within the university offering degrees in engineering, computing, business administration, the sciences, architecture, and liberal arts.
George P. (Bud) Peterson is president of Georgia Tech. The school has an endowment of approximately $1.9 billion and as recently as 2015 had an enrollment of just more than 25,000 students. The main campus in Atlanta stretches across about 375 acres.
Notable alumni include President Jimmy Carter, entertainer Jeff Foxworthy, Coca Cola chairman and CEO John F. Brock, former Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen Jr., U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, college football coach Bill Curry, film and television actor Pernell Roberts, film actor Randolph Scott and dozens of high profile professional athletes including golfers Bobby Jones, Stewart Cink, and David Duval; football players Calvin Johnson, Joe Hamilton, Demaryius Thomas, and Joshua Nesbitt; basketball players Chris Bosh, Mark Price, Stephon Marbury, John Salley, Dennis Scott, Iman Shumpert, Derrick Favors, Jarrett Jack, Glen Rice Jr., and Kenny Anderson; and baseball players Nomar Garciaparra, Matt Murton and Mark Teixeira.
Ramblin’ Wreck
Works consulted and other references
Phoenix Rising, Dr. G. Frank Burns
Presidents Who Have Known Me, George E. Allen
The Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas
The Chicago Tribune
The Georgia Tech Alumni Association
The New York Times
Lebanon, Kim Jackson Parks
The Taylor Daily Press, Taylor, Texas
Ramblinwreck.com, Georgia Tech Athletics
New Georgia Encyclopedia
Tigernet.com, Auburn Athletics
University Archives and Records Center, University of Pennsylvania
Wikipedia
Dr. Rick Bell, Cumberland University
Time Magazine
Cumberland University Athletics
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Tech photographer Danny Karnik
Photo Credits
Chapter 1
“Dwight D. Eisenhower photo portrait” by the White House is licensed under CC BY 2.0 “George-Allen-1937” by the Harris & Ewing collection at the Library of Congress is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Kennedy Nixon Debate (1960)” by United Press International is licensed under CC BY 2.0 “Tip O’Neill 1978” by U.S. National Archives and Records Administration is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Hope with Group Meets Patton WW2” by the Library of Congress is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Cordell Hull, U.S. Secretary of State” by U.S. Department of State from United States is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Chapter 2
“John Heisman” by Georgia Tech Archives and Records Management is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
“1913 Chevy” at the Alfred P. Sloan Museum, Flint Michigan, photo by Trainguy1, created July 20, 2011 is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
“Horn Springs” unknown photographer used by permission of photograph owner Dr. Rick Bell, Cumberland University.
Chapter 3
“George Allen on yacht with President Truman” photographer unknown, by U.S. National Archives is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Chapter 4
“Caruthers Hall” by permission of Cumberland University from the Cumberland University Library Archives.
“Kenneth G. Matheson” source Georgia Tech Library Archives www.library.gatech.edu/archives/years/images/1906.jpg licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.