Bobby Dodd Statue to be Unveiled at Tech

On Friday, Georgia Tech will unveil a statue of famed Yellow Jacket head coach Bobby Dodd at the football stadium that bears his name. The unveiling will be at 4 p.m. and the public is invited to attend.

The 54-inch tall statue will depict the legendary coach kneeling and will rest on an approximate five-foot pedestal that will be on the Callaway Plaza at the north end zone of Bobby Dodd Stadium. It will be unveiled in conjunction with Dodd’s Boys, a group of Dodd’s former players.

Dodd began his coaching career on The Flats as an assistant in 1931 and then beginning in 1945 served as the Jackets’ head coach for 22 seasons. The statue’s unveiling will come a day before Tech faces Virginia in a 3:30 p.m. game at Grant Field. On Saturday, Tech will honor the 1951 and ’52 Jacket teams, the latter which will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of its national championship.

Dodd, who served as Tech athletic director from 1967-76, is tops at the school with 165 career victories. A standout player at the University of Tennessee, Dodd is one of only three men to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and coach.

The Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award, which was established in 1976, is presented annually to the NCAA Division I football coach whose program represents the highest ideals on and off the field. Dodd passed away in 1988 at the age of 79.

To gain an even deeper perspective of how beloved Dodd was and continues to be at Tech and throughout the world of college football, see the accompanying video that was shown when the 2009 Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award was presented to TCU coach Gary Patterson.

It even features Dodd himself in a priceless ESPN interview at Tech conducted less than seven months before his passing. For more info on Friday’s unveiling, see here.