LORAN SMITH: The best coaches were the best schedulers

Traditionally, the best coaches were the best schedulers. In many cases they were also athletic directors, which meant that they were keen on making the schedule accommodate their objective with regard to accumulating victories—both in a given season and a career.

When Bear Bryant took over at Alabama in 1958, he initially moved to schedule an additional conference game. That meant that if everybody in the league lost a game, he would win the championship, based on percentage. He didn’t get away with it, but that shows you how the ole timers were as on top of things as the salient coaches are today.

Ole Miss, which did not play enough games to compete for the SEC title, was allowed to designate one non-conference opponent on it its schedule as a conference game. What school did the Rebels recommend for their conference opponent—Chattanooga! That made Johnny Vaught, perhaps, the smartest coach in the conference, but you couldn’t ignore Bryant and Gen. Robert Neyland at Tennessee when it came to cleverness.

It was Bryant who signed swimmers who were told they had to also play football. That led to the rule that athletes who wanted to play multiple sports, and the plan included football, the athlete had to be on football scholarship.

The best thing going for Georgia Tech for many years was when Tech was riding high in the fifties, selling out its games to the corporations and the distribution centers which located in Atlanta after World War II with no pro teams in town, was Coach Bobby Dodd’s selling Auburn and Clemson on playing in Atlanta every year for the larger gate.

That scheduling trick is how Georgia got Sanford Stadium. For “the larger gate,” Georgia played its game with Tech on Grant Field from 1900 through 1928, having moved to build its own classy stadium in the hollow on the banks of Tanyard Creek after being upset in 1927 on Grant Field. The Bulldogs were undefeated and headed to the Rose Bowl. Hard rains came that week, but Georgia partisans swear that, nonetheless, Tech watered down Grant Field to make sure the fast Bulldog running backs could not gain traction. Tech won 12-0.

Dr. Steadman Sanford, for whom the Georgia stadium is named, was so insulted, he set about finding a way to build a stadium which would be bigger than Grant Field, classier and one which would be known as the best in the Southland. That he succeeded is obvious to anyone with knowledge of Bulldog football history.

Georgia succumbed to flawed thinking during the hard times of the fifties. Coach Wallace Butts, also the athletic director, fielded teams which struggled after having been dominant in the forties—before World War II and afterwards. Butts began playing games on the road for a check. He even resorted to playing night games in Atlanta.

One who was opposed to that trend of thought was Dan Magill, the versatile sports publicity director. He knew that Georgia’s strength was with its people who dominate the state—just as Dr. Sanford did when he traveled the state to raise money to build the stadium which would later carry his name. However, you had to put a competitive team on the field to sell seats. Magill continued to support the notion that it was best to play “in beautiful Sanford Stadium.”

When Joel Eaves became the athletic director, succeeding the acting AD, Howell Hollis, in 1963, he needed no convincing about the importance of a home schedule. He believed in home games and playing teams you had an equal chance to beat. He was an Auburn man, but both he and Vince Dooley wanted to play Alabama on an annual basis. They believed that Georgia could compete with Alabama. For years, the Georgia-Alabama series was one of the best in the SEC.

Today, with limited scholarships and rules changes, you schedule in the best interest of your football team. Play 12 heavyweights—week after week after week and your team will look like a M*A*S*H unit.