A good friend, Tim Slaton, reached out to me a few weeks ago. I think it was over some dry-aged brisket and special nuggets. He offered us tickets to the Georgia Tech college football home opener at the historic Boby Dodd Stadium in midtown Atlanta. It was an obvious yes—some connections he had, awarded him with several dozen tickets. I had a college sporting event on my list of things Diem must experience as a new arrival to the U.S. I was thrilled it would come on the first weekend, of the first home game, of the first season after we arrived in the states.
As I am often known to do, I began in earnest researching the topic of college football. All in the hope of sprinkling bits of knowledge amongst the tales of our experience here. I have this often unhealthy and varyingly uncontrollable urge to teach people things they usually don’t wish to know. The part I love the most is the research, which most seem to disdain. I fill my time in the car with lectures on the unknowable complexities of quantum physics, the dawn of the Hellenistic age, or the drollingly dull topic of the history of salt. Bring up a topic I am moderately versed in, and I’m likely to break into an interruptive one-sided conversation about its nuances. it’s a problem, I know. I’m working on it.
The Begining
The first proto-college football game was played between Rutgers and Princeton Universities on November 6, 1869. However, a recognizable form wouldn’t be played until 1880. Based loosely on the British Empire’s popular sport of Rugby. The Ivey universities were the first to field teams. Making the storied institutions of Yale, Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton among the first rivalries in college football. Early matches were often violent. Many schools suspended play for years at a time due to deaths on the field. The year 1905 was particularly nasty, with 19 on-field deaths at Universities across the nation. It became so concerning that President Theodore Roosevelt held a meeting at the white house with the heads of Princeton, Harvard, and Yale on October 9 of that year.
He proposed modifying the game to make it safer. The governing body now known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, evolved from this original meeting. Some of the rules that led to modern football can be traced to the first meetings of the governing body and the changes and adjustments it made to the game. It introduced the forward pass and banned “mass momentum” plays like the flying wedge, often resulting in serious injury and sometimes death. Introducing the “try,” the predecessor to the modern down, would help slow the game and lead directly to the development of position players.
Harvard’s legacy
In researching the topic of College Football, I came across an interesting anecdote about its history. As the NCAA began to establish the basic rules and regulations for the sport in the opening years of the 20th century, they fell upon a wonderful idea that they hoped would open up the game. They wanted to widen the field by a considerable margin, maybe as wide as a soccer pitch. However, it was not to be, as Harvard had recently constructed the first permanent football stadium in 1903. If the measure had passed, it would have made the stadium obsolete. Harvard Stadium was built during that fantastic period of American history known as the Gilded Age.
Constructed of the poured concrete technique the St. Augustine titans Henry Flagler and Franklin W. Smith pioneered. The oldest concrete structure in the United States for collegiate sports, the stadium also claims to be the first vertical reinforced concrete structure in America. I know this is not true. During my time exploring the Lightner museum in St. Augustine, I came across an obscure and lost history display. When the Senate passed sweeping reform in the Interstate Commerce act in 1887, it partially regulated the railroads—making much of Henry Flagler’s Florida railroad obsolete. He pulled the old rail lines and used them as a proto-rebar in his vertical poured concrete structure, the Ponce De Leon Hotel. Rudimentary and unconventional for the time, it was the actual first vertical reinforced concrete structure. But I digress.
Food
We arrived at the Varsity, a short walk from the historical Bobby Dodd Stadium at Grant Field. More on that later. It was bustling, smelled of fried goodness, and welcoming. We clambered into line and ordered a vast array of burgers, dogs, greasy rings, fries, and frosty sweet treats. It’s unhealthy, it’s a treat, it’s incomparable. To dine at the Varsity and walk across the interstate to Bobby Dodd is a unique experience. The college town that masquerades as a southern city known as Atlanta sits at the precipice of modernization and history. As someone that cooked in its restaurants for two decades, I can tell you it’s as diverse a city as you will find in the eastern U.S.
We sat in the front window enjoying our Atlanta classics and watched the people stroll past on North Avenue. Most decked out in Tech gear heading over the bridge towards Bobby Dodd. After talking about our next move, we parked our cars and began the pilgrimage across 75/85. The mist began to shift between the rain. It was a decently wet walk across the bridge and down to the stadium. Unfortunately, Georgia Tech was not in the national conversation. However, neither that nor the rain stifled the excitement of the crowd.
Bobby Dodd Stadium
John W. Grant was a wealthy Atlanta Merchant in the 1880s and a Tech graduate. Married to the daughter of Hugh T. Inman, the pair making up the Inman Park and Grant park families, they donated the land to become Grant field. Named after their deceased son, who died Just before or after his 11th birthday. The first game was played on the field in 1905, and it’s been the home of the Yellow Jackets since. The early stands were built by those resourceful engineering students. The first permanent grandstands of 7,000 were completed in 1913. By the end of that decade, seating capacity would reach 25,000.
Today its old brick and steel frame sits in contrast to the modern skyline of the peach state’s capital city. At a current capacity of over 60,000, it rivals the largest stadium in all of Vietnam. Bobby Dodd Stadium has many modern luxuries and amenities one would expect from a college football facility. Concessions, suites, and a surprising addition, beer. Hopping from North Avenue to Techwood, we saw a great view of the main gate and stadium. As we turned the corner from Techwood, the Ramblin Wreck headed in full accompaniment towards us. Flags, Marching Band, Buzz the mascot, and all the others came marching to a stop just in front of us. The old Ramblin Wreck is a model-T Ford. An hommage to the industrialization of America that built the need for industrial engineers and Institutions to teach them.
Bobby Dodd, the Man
Bobby Dodd, in one form or another, was involved with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football program for over four decades. From assistant coach to Head coach and finally Athletic Director. To say Bobby Dodd had a part in shaping the game of college football would be an understatement. Not always fielding the biggest or fastest, Bobby Dodd exhibited a finesse and precision of play in football that balanced the scale in his favor. He unconventionally believed in lighter, more precision practices to the weight-heavy intensity of his contemporaries. He believed in player treatment, education first, and a problem-solving approach that fit in well with the engineering culture of the campus. Often beating teams he was outmatched against, Dodd developed a reputation for uncannily cultivating talent and doing so with a gentle hand and incredible luck.
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.
– Bobby Dodd
Compiling an impressive 165 wins, 64 losses, and 8 ties in his tenure as Head coach. Dodd led his team to a 31-game winning streak between ’51 and ’53 and clinched two SEC titles and the National title in 1952. Dodd would prove to be an itchy festering sore in the eyes of his contemporaries. Tech defeated Georgia 8 meetings in a row between 1949 and 1956 and defeated Alabama and its legendary coach, Bear Bryant, 7 out of 17 meetings during his tenure. More than once thwarting Alabama’s chance at another title. Bobby Dodd once said in retirement his two greatest victories were both against Alabama. Both defensive battles, a 7-3 victory sealing Tech’s perfect season, and a national title in 1952. And a 7-6 victory in 1962 prevented Alabama from claiming the title that year.
I would rather look across the field and see anyone other than Bobby Dodd.
-Bear Bryant
Legacy
Bobby Dodd’s legacy in Atlanta is unquestionable. Dedicated to his players both on and off the field. Bobby Dodd’s philosophy of not winning at all costs and to the education and development of his players was a stark contrast to the collegiate world at the time. Today the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award is given to the coach whose team excels in the classroom, on the field, and in the community. In a ceremony in April 1988, a few months before Dodd’s death, the stadium that he coached and led in for almost half a century was renamed Bobby Dodd Stadium. A year later, the street that borders the stadium’s north end was renamed Bobby Dodd Way. This brings us full circle here now, to the misty Autumn day at the Georgia Tech Campus.
It was a balmy fall Saturday as a blanket of fog cut into the city. We stood on Bobby Dodd Way, catching the last of the marching band’s performance as the model-T made its way into the stadium. We, too, made our way inside. Through security, up to the top of the endzone, and posted almost directly behind the goal post. The rain showers ebbed and flowed through the misty late afternoon. The fog and low clouds that wandered through our view gave the city a chopped look. Attendance was, at the moment, lacking. But the foggy city, beautiful view, and scope of the scene were captivating. Diem was a little nervous, she had never climbed stadium seating before, and given that it still has the old bench-style seats, it wasn’t exactly welcoming.
Observations
As we made ourselves comfortable, the pregame festivities began to coalesce around the stadium. Another marching band performance, flag display, cheerleaders, and the other things one sees at sporting events. I began to explain all of this to Diem. College sports, in general, is something most outside North America don’t understand. She looked at me with a contemplative expression and simply said, “why”? Why indeed. It occurred to me just at that moment how strangely bizarre the American College athlete is to the rest of the world.
There are roughly 31,000 institutions of higher learning in the world. At least that fits a standard high enough to be internationally recognized as such. Out of the top 100 schools, 56 are in the U.S. The next two countries with the top 100 schools are the U.K. and Australia with 8 and 7 respectively. Out of the top 101 – 200, the U.S. has 36. In comparison, the U.K. has 11 and China with only 7. You begin to see the pattern. Most countries don’t have an institution in the top 1,000. This sets up a very interesting environment for American Institutions. A seemingly endless supply of schools and accompanying opportunities for collegiate play. No country has as robust or extensive a collegiate athletic association as the U.S.
Still, why?
These collegiate programs give out scholarships to those athletes that make the cut, and the competitive nature of the sports world is thought to give students a competitive edge in studies. I pondered the question further as to why this was such a huge part of American culture. To foster healthy competition among schools and Institutions? Or maybe simply as a school booster. I couldn’t help but think it was, at least partly, to give us parents something to be proud of. Whether a starting player or a marching band member, every parent is proud to see their child compete and appear engaged in the American Dream. Which more and more seems to need a college degree attached to it.
I can simply say that I have not yet visited a place where an amateur series of sports could draw in millions of dollars in revenue. Or facilitate billion-dollar television contracts. It is an insane anomaly of the international collegiate system. The average ticket for last year’s College Football National Championship game was over $2,000. With some individual tickets reaching tens of thousands of dollars each. All to watch amateurs play a school match. Wrap your brain around that for a moment.
A winless victory
Though Tech struggled to get going, their second-tier D-1 opponent scored first, and they finally settled into a handy victory. It would prove to be the only win they would find before head coach Geoff Collins was shown the door three weeks later. However, we knew nothing of the coming difficulties at the first home game of the season. We basked in the electric ignorance of a hopeful season and a possibly bright future. As halftime approached, the city began to blaze in the heavy fog that seemed to trap the artificial light as the city lit up in the coming night.
It was a game in the flats, a storied college football program, and a uniquely American experience. Another day, another box checked, and a lifetime of America to explore. How we will ever accomplish it I don’t know. One game, one famous dish, one must see attraction at a time. But that’s a story for another day. On this rainy Autumn day in downtown Atlanta, it was the Ramblin wreck from Georgia Tech’s turn to introduce a piece of Americana to Diem and Lisa. What’s next, one can’t be sure. I’m feeling like a long drive in the desert.
Or click here for the article on Henry Flagler and the Titans of St. Augustine.
For more of our journey in the U.S. click here.
