The Confidential

The ACC School Mount Rushmores: Georgia Tech

The Confidential has been having some fun with league-wide coaches Mount Rushmores.  Football and Basketball, plus polls for each of football and basketball to share your thoughts.  In fact, it was so sufficiently fun and controversial that we are going to do school-wide Mount Rushmores now.  And we will only put three people on the list, leaving you–our readers–to comment as to who should be the fourth.  We will not do polls anymore.  For today, let’s go with a school with a rich ACC history: Georgia Tech.

As we discussed previously, these school-wide Mount Rushmores are limited to sports only–players and coaches.  That being said, athletes that have gone on to have careers that have furthered their legend are rewarded also.   And negative publicity will also be factored in.  We do not believe that USC would put OJ Simpson on its Mount Rushmore.  It is what it is.  Admittedly, there will be a recency bias too.  While historical accomplishments are typically quite impressive, coaching college football (as an example) in 1955 was a lot different than coaching today, where coaches rarely get 5 years to make their mark anymore.  Similarly, in an era of up to 14 college football games or 40 college basketball games, as well as daunting pressure from the fans and media, today’s game is more challenging.  That’s our opinion and we are sticking to it.

The Confidential gives the first spot to Bobby Dodd.  Georgia Tech could have named its stadium after John Heisman or William Alexander.  Each of these predecessors to Dodd won a National Championship.  And you’ve probably heard of that trophy bearing Heisman’s name.  Dodd coached Georgia Tech for 22 years, going an impressive 165-64-8.  There was a national title in 1952, as well as a 31-game winning streak.  Not an easy decision, but Dodd gets the nod here.

The #2 spot goes to Mark Price.  Price was an outstanding player for Georgia Tech, scoring more than 2,000 points and taking Tech to an Elite Eight appearance.  Price was named the ACC Most Valuable Player in 1984-85.   Price went on to have a very successful NBA career.  He is currently second in the NBA’s all-time free-throw percentage rankings (90.4%) and was a leader in three-point percentage too.  He holds the Cleveland Cavaliers record for assists in a career.  He even returned to serve as an assistant coach for Georgia Tech briefly.

The #3 and #4 spots for Georgia Tech are insanely difficult.  We are going to do the unprecedented and turn both the #3 and #4 spots over to the fans.  Let’s list some of the candidates here: (a) golf’s Bobby Jones; (b) football’s Heisman, Alexander, Bobby Ross, Calvin Johnson, and Robert Lavette; (c) baseball’s Nomar Garciaparra, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Brown, and Jason Varitek; and (d) basketball’s John Salley, Bobby Cremins, Kenny Anderson, Stephon Marbury, Chris Bosh, Jarrett Jack, and Dennis Scott.  Surely there are plenty others.  This is where you come in–let us know who should be #3 and #4.

Who will be the Confidential’s third and fourth Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket on its Mount Rushmore?

Other Mount Rushmores:

• ACC Football Coaches
• ACC Basketball Coaches

1. Maryland Preliminary   Maryland Final
2. Boston College    Boston College Final
3. Wake Forest   Wake Forest Final
4. Miami
5. Virginia Tech
6. Syracuse
7. Virginia
8. Pittsburgh
9. North Carolina State
10. Clemson