Countdown to Kickoff: No. 29

Pepper Rodgers

The countdown to kickoff is officially on as Georgia Tech‘s season-opening matchup at Colorado on Aug. 29 is less than 100 days away.

Until then JOL will be counting it down with one Jackets’ player daily that wore the corresponding number of days remaining until toe meets leather in Boulder.

With it now 29 days until kickoff in Boulder, today’s focus is on No. 29 Pepper Rodgers, a legendary name on The Flats that helped lead Georgia Tech to a national championship in 1952 as a quarterback and kicker before returning a couple decades later to serve as head coach of the Yellow Jackets.

Rodgers grew up in Atlanta where he was a multi-sport star at Brown High and won a state championship in football in 1949 before deciding to continue his athletic and academic career at Georgia Tech and play under the legendary head coach Bobby Dodd.

Rodgers was the backup at QB and kicker in 1951 before getting his shot to fill both those starting roles in 1952 as a junior when Tech went a perfect 12-0 en route to an SEC Championship, Sugar Bowl Championship and National Championship.

Rodgers returned in 1953 to help the Jackets to a 9-2-1 record and another Sugar Bowl victory to end the season, this time via a 42-19 win over West Virginia. Rodgers threw for 195 yards and three touchdowns along with kicking a field goal and two extra points to be named Sugar Bowl MVP in his final college game.

Rodgers finished his career with 791 passing yards over three seasons on 33-of-52 attempts with seven touchdowns along with six rushing touchdowns and was a part of an Orange Bowl champion team (1951) and two Sugar Bowl champion teams in his three years as a player at Tech.

He was selected in the 12th round of the 1954 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Colts but chose to stay at Georgia Tech and complete his degree in industrial management while also serving as a student assistant coach under Dodd.

Rodgers joined the Air Force in 1955 and served five years as a pilot. During that time he also spent the 1958 and 1959 seasons as an assistant coach for the Air Force football team. He later served as an assistant coach at both Florida and UCLA before getting his first head coaching job at Kansas where he led the Jayhawks from 1967-1970 and helped them win a Big Eight Championship in 1968, the same season he was named Big Eight Coach of the Year.

Rodgers went back to UCLA in 1971 to take the head coaching job there and was there through 1973 before he came back to his alma mater Georgia Tech where he was the head coach from 1974-1979, compiling a record of 34-31-2 in six seasons.

Rodgers returned to the sideline as head coach of the Memphis Showboats of USFL in 1984-1985 and finished out his coaching career with the Memphis Mad Dogs of the CFL in 1995. He also later served as vice president of football operations for the Washington Redskins from 2001-2004.

Rodgers was inducted into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1970 and later was a member of the inaugural Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame class in 2018. Rodgers passed away at the age of 88 in 2020.

Honorable Mention

–Malcolm King (Running back from 1984-1987, played in 40 career games and totaled 1,576 rushing yards on 330 carries with 17 touchdowns, also had 53 career catches for 551 yards and a touchdown)

–Marvious Hester (Defensive back from 1999-2001, played in 31 games and had six career interceptions, including an overtime interception to set up a Luke Manget game-winning field goal in Tech’s 51-48 win over rival UGA in 1999, had one career defensive touchdown and had 41 career punt returns for 421 total yards)

–Step Durham (Defensive back from 2014-2017, played in 38 career games and finished with 76 tackles (64 solo), 12 passes defended, one interception, one tackle-for-loss, one sack, two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble)