Coming up on 60 years since GT pussied out of the SEC

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“It was a horrible decision,” said Mitchell Ginn, a Tech graduate in architecture and a Newnan residential designer who doubles as a historian.

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At the crux of Tech’s exit was the so-called 140 Rule. SEC schools — there were 12, Tulane included — were allowed 140 scholarships for football and men’s basketball; football programs were allowed to sign as many 45 recruits per season. Tech coach Bobby Dodd believed that other teams were overrecruiting, pushing aside underperforming players to clear scholarship space for newer ones.

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That summer, The Atlanta Constitution ran a story proclaiming that Tech was prepared to leave the SEC over the 140 Rule. The 1964 meetings convened at the downtown Atlanta Americana Motor Hotel, with some believing that the Jackets had delivered an ultimatum: Change the rule or we’re out.

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After two days of wrangling and failed compromises, Harrison opened the Friday presidents’ meeting by saying, “Georgia Tech’s interests would best be served by withdrawing from the conference.” As Ginn noted in his article, the official vote had not yet been taken. When it was, the count was 11-0 to keep the 140 Rule.

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Wrote Ginn: “The years that followed as an independent were mostly lean ones. From 1964 to 1982, Georgia Tech’s football record was 104-100-5. Compare that to Tech’s … record of 206-110-12 from 1933 to 1963. As an independent, Georgia Tech saw its facilities become worn and outdated, surpassed in size and quality by most of its Southern competitors.”

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One consequence of Tech’s SEC exit that Curry will concede involves Atlanta itself. He grew up in College Park rooting for the Bulldogs, his father having been a Georgia graduate. In Curry’s mind, the city was split almost 50-50 between Jackets and Bulldogs in the early ’60s, but this remained an SEC town even without an SEC team. By leaving the conference, Tech ceded Atlanta to Georgia. Wrote Ginn: “Arguably, the level of national prestige that Tech football enjoyed as a member in the SEC has never returned. … In 1963, the enrollment at Georgia Tech was about 6,300 students, and there were roughly 50,000 living alumni. In 2011, the enrollment at Georgia Tech (was) more than 20,000, and there (were) more than 120,000 living alumni. Atlanta’s metro population more than tripled. Yet Georgia Tech’s average football attendance for 2010 was less than in 1963.”

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