“Whatever is there to go to Mississippi for?” Dodd was quoted as saying. “We like to take our fans to exciting places and Mississippi isn’t one.”
“The Mississippis (Mississippi and Mississippi State) just hated my guts, particularly Ole Miss,” Dodd said. “They wanted their hands on me so bad, ‘cause I wouldn’t play ‘em.”
Dodd’s stance ultimately had repercussions. After Tech left the SEC, there were at least two informal efforts to bring the school back into the conference. Former Tech coach Bill Curry, a captain of Dodd’s 1964 team, served as a messenger in 1975 from Alabama great Bear Bryant to Dodd that Bryant was ready to end the feud between the two men and, moreover, sponsor Tech’s re-entry into the conference.
“Coach Dodd said, ‘Well, that’s very nice, but we would never be allowed (back in),’” Curry said. “’The Mississippi schools would never allow it. They hate us too much.’”
Georgia coaching legend Vince Dooley said his school likewise made a back-channels campaign to bring back Tech some time prior to the school joining the ACC in 1978. Dooley said his school and others believed Tech’s location in Atlanta to be important to the conference.
However, Dooley said, “The Western brothers and sisters were not so supportive, without naming names.”
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