Question about a past coach?

Scubapro

Scubapro

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Another Book by Pepper.
To restate what others have said about Pepper, people either hated or loved him. I have heard stories about when he played at Tech he would get to arrogant from time to time and the O line had a signal where they wouldn't block and let him get creamed.

 
Scubapro

Scubapro

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91tG2iflhPL.jpg

sorry about that....hopefully this works
 

wreck1

Georgia Tech Fan
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87
GlennW said:
For those unaware; the GA Tech's football facilities (dressing rooms, training room, equipment room, laundry, weight room, etc) were probably some of the worst in the Country (including Division II and Division III) during Pepper Rodger's tenure, with everything located under the East Stands (except the weight "room," which was an open air facility under the North Stands. The Coaches offices were in the old, grey, AA building, which housed all of the Administrative areas as well, like ticketing and the Athletic Director, PR, etc.

If anyone has ever been under the East Stands, you'll know that is where the original Grant Field Stadium seating still sits, but what many people didn't know was that a small "hive" was built right along the road side (a small aisle with rooms on the field side for the training room, locker rooms, equipment room, then the laundry). The hallway was so narrow, you could almost touch both sides by stretching both arms out (two guys couldn't walk side-by-side down the hall at the same time). The training room (not to be confused with a training table, which served meals), could only handle 6 or so players at a time, on tables, with a couple of ice baths. Then there were two sets of locker rooms; one large room for the varsity, which was carpeted and had a juke box, and then a series of smaller rooms that held about ten non-varsity players, and they worked their way down the hall towards the equipment room (where Sarge and the student football managers were located).

There was a small alley outside towards the road that golf carts could be used to drive tackling dummies from the equipment room to Rose Bowl Field for two-a-day practices.
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Glenn, what was the name of the lady that lead stretching before practices?
 

danny daniel

Helluva Engineer
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No doubt Pepper had some short comings but he also got us some national limelight we had been missing for a while such as rushing yardage among the elite leaders and some highly visible players such as Eddie Lee. That rushing record by Eddie Lee in the bowl game on TV brought us a lot of attention. Anytime you pile up impressive numbers you get the program a lot of needed attention. I will give him kudos for that.
 

TheSilasSonRising

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danny daniel said:
No doubt Pepper had some short comings but he also got us some national limelight we had been missing for a while such as rushing yardage among the elite leaders and some highly visible players such as Eddie Lee. That rushing record by Eddie Lee in the bowl game on TV brought us a lot of attention. Anytime you pile up impressive numbers you get the program a lot of needed attention. I will give him kudos for that.
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What rushing record by ELI in a bowl game? ELI had a rushing record vs AFA in Colorado Springs but it was a 1978 regular season game. He got hurt vs ugag and did not play in the Peach Bowl.
 
jacketup

jacketup

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augustabuzz said:
Pepper was allowed some academic exceptions in 1975, and that class contained some good talent. Pepper was having a good year in 1978, and some of "our" alumns were upset that he might be given an extension. So, in an effort to cut off your nose to spite your face, they sent an anonymous letter to our recruits telling them to not come to Tech. This led directly to the down years in the early eighties. It also gave Dr. Petit an excuse to end the football program, which he almost did.
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I don't know about that last sentence. Dr. Petit was directly responsible for bringing in Dr. Rice, and we'd be playing Division II but for Homer.
 
jacketup

jacketup

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Sideways said:
Good gracious Glenn! I knew,even then, that things were bad but I had no idea. How did the coaches manage to convince anyone to come to Tech? I was at another college in those days and would come home to Atlanta and go to every single home game. My mother and dad had season tickets in the west stands and bought me a season ticket in the north stands. Dad thought I would get too excitied and wanted me to sit away from them. We would go to the Varsity afterwards. Fun times but it was obvious we were a little bit outmanned against good teams.
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You can thank Bobby Dodd for the pitiful facilities. He is not the hero to me that he is to some people because he was such a bad AD.

Susan Phinney was an administrative assistant in those days, and she was the de facto recruiting coordinator. When people asked her what she did, she said she recruited football players. She was an Auburn alum, and Auburn's coaches used to call her and tell her about players they didn't want. That's how well we were recruiting in 1979.

We were recruiting at a very low level the last few years of Pepper. Things picked up under Curry, but we were so far down when he came. It amazes me that anyone has ill will towards Bill Curry. No one else would have taken that job.
 

SoMsJacket

Jolly Good Fellow
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For someone who was in school during Pepper's tenure, this is as true a statement. Dodd did nothing as an AD. Pepper was promised upgrades that never happened. Thank God for Homer Rice.
 
Essobee

Essobee

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jacketup said:
You can thank Bobby Dodd for the pitiful facilities. He is not the hero to me that he is to some people because he was such a bad AD.

Susan Phinney was an administrative assistant in those days, and she was the de facto recruiting coordinator. When people asked her what she did, she said she recruited football players. She was an Auburn alum, and Auburn's coaches used to call her and tell her about players they didn't want. That's how well we were recruiting in 1979.

We were recruiting at a very low level the last few years of Pepper. Things picked up under Curry, but we were so far down when he came. It amazes me that anyone has ill will towards Bill Curry. No one else would have taken that job.
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Yep. Bobby was a great sideline coach...maybe the best in coaching. But he was simply not equipped to be an AD. And I agree with your comments about Bill Curry. The real story about Tech Athletics is Homer Rice. He was a college sports genius, although even the best make some mistakes along the way (B... L....).
 
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