Bobby Dodd and Mack Tharpe

Digital image created at the Georgia Tech Library, 2010. Scanned at 600ppi.||Physical Condition: GoodPosing on the turf of Grant Field are two of Tech's outstanding assistant coaches of the 1930s, Mach Tharpe, left, and Bobby Dodd, right. The two are dressed informally. Between them, in the background, is a blurred profile of head coach Bill Alexander. An unidentified man is visible in the left background. Still further in the background is a portion of the East Stand and the Field House.||Mack Tharpe was an outstanding student and football player at Tech who received his degree in Commerce in 1926 and returned to coach in 1928. He became line coach in 1934. He also ran a successful insurance business in Atlanta. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II Tharpe joined the Navy. He had secretly learned how to fly before the war, and at the advanced age of 38 he became a Navy dive bomber pilot. He served aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific and was killed in action in 1945. Bobby Dodd came to Tech in 1931 as an assistant coach to Bill Alexander. He became head coach in 1945 and in his 22 years in that job he compiled a record of 165-65-8. He took the Yellow Jackets to 13 bowl games and won 9 of them. Much of his legacy comes from his style of coaching. He thought football should be fun and that it was only one part of a complete college experience. He coached off the field as well as on it, never revoked a scholarship if a player was injured and could not continue to play, was gifted with what was known as "Dodd's Luck", and inspired the slogan "In Dodd We Trust". He died in 1988, a legend as a coach and an educator