The year is 1964. Lyndon Johnson is President, the Beatles are at the top of the pop/rock world, Barry Goldwater is the Republican nominee for President, the Vietnam War is on it's way to becoming one of the most controversial periods in American history, and, after their 20th year under head coach Robert "Bobby" Dodd, Georgia Tech decides to leave the Southeastern Conference (SEC), a conference that they had been a part of since joining the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) in 1895.
So what happened to Georgia Tech and the SEC? What caused this massive falling out that lead to a team leaving a conference that they have been a part of for 69 years and that they are still listed in as a founding member? This long and strange history, admittedly, could only happen in the South where football is king and could only happen because of a relationship between two men who are almost synonymous with the game of college football. Those two men? Paul "Bear" Bryant and Robert "Bobby" Dodd.
However, before we get to that relationship, perhaps it would be best to visit the history of Georgia Tech football, once one of the great powers of the game. Lead by coaches such as John Heisman (you know, the guy who has a trophy named after him) and then Bobby Dodd, the Yellow Jackets were always a figure on the national scene. A program with four national championships to their name (more than Florida, Florida State, and a lot of other very prestigious programs, and the same amount as the Texas Longhorns), Georgia Tech also 5 SEC Championships, 3 Southern Conference Championships, and 5 SIAA Championships.
So what caused this very successful, very prestigious program to up and leave a conference that they were a founding member of? That story has it's roots deep in the history of Georgia Tech and Alabama and stretches back to a very personal rivalry between Alabama head coach Bear Bryant and Georgia Tech head coach Bobby Dodd.
Originally, these two men were great friends who got along both on and off the field and had a lot of respect for each other. However, that all changed on a cloudy, overcast day in Birmingham at Legion Field in 1963. Late in the game, which Georgia Tech lost to Alabama 10-0, an Alabama player came with an elbow and knocked a Georgia Tech player so hard across the face that his cheekbone was shattered and several teeth ripped out. A media uproar followed that could not even be quelled by the visit of the Alabama football player to the Atlanta hospital where the Georgia Tech player was recovering.
The media continued to call for punishment, including publishing frame by frame photos of the incident. [Coach] Bryant, stubborn as ever, was reported to have remarked that he would take care of his own player and discipline him and that the Atlanta media was not going to tell him how to run his team. While there is some debate about if that player was disciplined or not, Dodd and Bryant, who had once been great friends, stopped talking and the series between Alabama and Georgia Tech was discontinued after one more game (which Georgia Tech lost 24-7 in Atlanta) when, in 1964, Georgia Tech abruptly left the conference.
While there are some people who still believe that Georgia Tech left the conference because of a debate over scholarship allocation and the treatment of student athletes, most old SEC fans will tell you that Georgia Tech left because Dodd could not stand to see Bryant year in and year out. Between 1965 and 1977, Georgia Tech was an independent team. While Dodd envisioned Tech eventually being the Notre Dame of the South and playing a national football schedule, Georgia Tech never reached the glory days of their time in the SEC.
Dodd left Tech in 1966, shortly after pulling them out of the SEC, and Tech struggled in the three years following his departure, going 4-6 in each of those seasons. While there would be some success, such as a 9-3 record in 1970, Georgia Tech went 85-53-3 during their time as an independent, never reaching their goal of becoming the Notre Dame of the South.
However, in 1975, there appeared to be a making up of sorts between Coach Bryant and Coach Dodd, when Bryant told Dodd that Alabama would personally sponsor Georgia Tech getting back into the SEC. While Dodd was grateful, he stated that the Mississippi schools would never allow Tech back into the SEC.
Why the Mississippi schools, you ask? Well that begins another interesting chapter in this story (I told you it was twisted!).
Apparently, during this period in SEC history, teams were not required by the conference to play certain schools like they are now. During the 30 years that Georgia Tech was in the SEC, let's look at their history with the Mississippi schools.
Ole Miss and Georgia Tech played in 1946, in Atlanta, and in 1953, in New Orleans in the Sugar Bowl. Against Mississippi State? Between 1933 and 1963, the Bulldogs and the Yellow Jackets never played a game against each other. According to legend, Dodd felt that Georgia Tech was too good to have to travel to places like Oxford and Starkville to play football games, so he never would agree to play the Mississippi schools
From the history that has been presented above, it now becomes obvious why the Mississippi schools would block Georgia Tech, even when Coach Bryant was willing to give in.
