This footage is from my grandparents’ 1961 trip starting in Jekyll Island and ending in Jacksonville, Florida where they watched Georgia Tech and Penn State play in the Gator Bowl on December 30, 1961. Penn State won 30-15.
To give you an idea of how long ago 1961 is in football years:
Joe Paterno was still an assistant coach for Penn State. It would be another five years before he was named head coach.
Georgia Tech was coached by Bobby Dodd, and was still a member of the SEC. It would be another three years before Tech defected from the SEC due to Dodd’s dispute with Alabama coach Bear Bryant.
I’ve broken a single 400-foot reel of 8mm film into three parts due to YouTube’s 10-minute limit on uploads:
The trip down. This might be boring to you, but it was interesting to me. Lots of footage of roadside signs, old cars, and what a lot of locales between Jeckyll Island and Jacksonville (Camden, Georgia is the one I could recognize by name, but there were others) looked like at the time.
Warm-ups, pre-game show and 1st half. See if you can recognize the coach stalking the goal line in warm-ups. I don’t think it’s Bobby Dodd, but I could be wrong.
Halftime show, 2nd half, fans’ exit. I love the floats, they’re like something out of a movie. Then seeing the Ramblin’ Wreck exactly as it is now ties the whole thing experience together for me as something real. Tell me if you think that’s a young Joe Paterno walking with the Penn State mascot before the game starts back up. I think it might be, but I can’t tell.
As of this morning, there were still plenty of tickets available for Georgia Tech’s game tonight against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks at Bobby Dodd stadium, which isn’t on TV. I’ll save you Georgia fans the trouble and say “big shock there.” Still, I’m tempted to go just to get a look at the new Paul Johnson offense, which he explains in this video:
The other intriguing storyline is that of Jacksonville State QB Ryan Perriloux, the SEC championship game MVP who was dismissed by LSU during the offseason. Does he add enough on offense to make it a game against Tech?
He’s an incredible talent, but probably not. While Tech has a new defensive coordinator taking over for the widely-respected Jon Tenuta and lacks experience at linebacker and in the secondary, its front four is probably the best in the ACC. They’ll get to know Perriloux very well in the Gamecock backfield.
My expectation is there will be a lot of Tech mistakes on offense and that Perriloux will torch the young secondary a few times and/or blow up broken plays on the run to keep it a little closer than it should be. I’m putting the over/under on both Tech fumbles and blown assignments that lead to long touchdowns for the Gamecocks at 3. I also expect Tech to string a drive or two together that will give Tech fans a little false hope about the Yellow Jackets’ prospects for the season.
There’s not a line on this game, so I’ll call Tech a two-touchdown favorite and predict an ugly Tech win at 38-24. Speaking of lines, you’ve submitted your NCAA Picks, right?
Update 11:58 p.m. – Wow, that wasn’t off base or anything. It’s a good thing no one listens to me, or this might have been embarrassing.
