Tech Topics - Fall 2007 - (Page 43)

YellowJackets BETH HALL/ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE By Neil B. McGahee I TECHTOPICS | FALL 2007 “ n the win-or-else world of college sports, University of Arkansas athletics director Frank Broyles is an anomaly. After 50 years of devotion to Razorback athletics — as head football coach and later athletics director — the 83-year-old former Georgia Tech quarterback and assistant coach is retiring in December. Broyles has been awarded nearly every collegiate athletic honor, including induction into the Georgia Tech Athletic Hall of Fame, the Orange, Gator and Cotton bowls halls of fame and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and was presented the National Football League’s John L. Toner Award in 2000 for his “dedication to college athletics and particularly college football.” Under his watch, Arkansas teams won 39 national championships, 57 titles in the now-defunct Southwestern Conference and 37 Southeastern Conference crowns. “I call it the ‘Razorback miracle’ and it’s all due to the lessons I learned from Bobby Dodd,” Broyles, IM 47, said. “He had the brightest mind in football, especially in offensive strategy, but he also knew how to prepare his players for purposes beyond football. His leadership qualities — the way he treated his players and coaches — gave me direction for my life and my career.” Dodd was an assistant to another Tech coaching legend, William Alexander, when he recruited Broyles, a three-sport letterman from Decatur High School in suburban Atlanta, in 1942. “There was never any question about me going anywhere other than Tech,” Broyles said. “I admired Bobby Dodd because he was a quarterback like me. I had also fallen in love with my high school sweetheart and Tech was close by. With the war going on, getting back home to see her from anywhere else would have been tough with no gas and no cars. But the main reason I came to Tech was Coach Dodd.” In those days freshmen weren’t allowed to play varsity football and Broyles was assigned to Tech’s freshman team. He jumped to the varsity the next year and played tailback on the 1943 and 1944 Southeastern Conference championship teams, earning All-SEC honors both years, and was named the 1944 SEC player of the year. His 1945 Orange Bowl record for passing yards stood for 55 years until it was broken in 2000. Beyond North Avenue, a world war was raging on two fronts and Broyles was called to active military duty in early 1945. “I was in the Navy Reserve V-12 program, so I knew I would be called up after I finished eight quarters at Tech,” he Yellow Jacket Heritage Broyles retiring after half century with Arkansas Missouri. He was excited, but he still said. “I played in the SEC basketball tour- contracts to play for baseball’s New York found himself looking south past the Yankees, the Chicago Bears of the nament in Louisville, Kentucky, then National Football League and basketball’s Ozark Mountains. caught a train to Providence, Rhode “When I was an assistant at Baylor, I Island, to report for midshipman school.” St. Louis Hawks and joined the staff of met John Barnhill, the Arkansas athletics After graduation, the newly commis- Baylor head coach Bob Woodruff, a fordirector,” Broyles said. “I realized even mer Tech assistant. Three years later, he sioned ensign flew to Atlanta and marthen that Arkansas was the perfect situafollowed Woodruff to the University of ried Barbara Day on May 6. tion. There was only one school in the Florida. Germany surrendered the next day. In Atlanta, Dodd endured his second state — nothing like Tech and Georgia “I guess they heard I was coming fighting each other for players and fan losing season in six years. His frustration and decided to give up,” he laughed. support — so you had it all to yourself. came to a head after the 1950 season, There were no signs of surrender When the job became available, I coming from the Pacific Theater applied for it but Barnhill wanted and Broyles was ordered to someone with head-coaching Okinawa to train for the experience.” impending invasion of Japan. (Dodd) had the brightest mind Broyles’ first season at When his plane stopped for in football, especially in offenMissouri had barely ended when refueling at Pearl Harbor, they sive strategy, but he also knew Barnhill called to say the were greeted with gunfire and how to prepare his players for Arkansas job was open again and sailors dancing on the tarmac. if he wanted it, it was his. The Japanese had surrendered. purposes beyond football. “I said, ‘What took you so “I guess Coach Dodd waslong?’ and left Columbia the next n’t the only one with a little day,” Broyles said. which he deemed “very poor” by his luck,” he said happily. No marching bands or motorcades standards. He felt hamstrung by Tech’s Broyles returned to the Institute in or cheering fans were waiting when high academic requirements and an 1946 to find everything had changed. Broyles arrived in Fayetteville. No one Alexander had been sidelined with health aging coaching staff that wasn’t keeping knew he was coming. abreast of the myriad changes in the problems and Dodd was the new head “Barney planned all along to hire me game. He replaced his former staff with a coach. Also gone was the venerable sinbut he gave the names of four or five group of younger, more knowledgeable gle-wing offense, replaced by Dodd’s other candidates to the press to distract assistants, including Broyles as offensive then-revolutionary T formation and them,” Broyles said. “I had been hired a coach. The golden era of Georgia Tech Broyles was his quarterback. week earlier but the Arkansas Gazette’s football had begun. “That was a big plus for me,” he front-page headline said, ‘Murray “We won 59 games from 1951 to said. “I played tailback in Coach Alex’s Warmath of Minnesota to be named head single wing but I wasn’t a very good run- 1957, won six bowl games and beat coach.’” Georgia eight straight times,” Broyles ner. In the T formation, the quarterback Broyle’s first challenge wasn’t found said. “The 1951 and 1952 teams were didn’t run much — they usually handed on the football field but in the hills and undefeated and the 1952 team won a cooff or passed — and that suited my talhollers of rural Arkansas. The state’s national championship.” ents perfectly.” rugged terrain isolated the population — Coaching at his alma mater was With Broyles calling signals, the there were no interstate highways or even rewarding but Broyles yearned to run his Yellow Jackets posted nine- and 10-win dependable telephone service — so athletown program and in 1957, with some seasons and won the 1946 Oil Bowl and ic loyalties were usually determined by help from Dodd, he landed the headthe 1947 Orange Bowl. Continued on Page 44 coaching job at the University of After graduation, Broyles declined “ 43

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Topics - Fall 2007

Contents Mail Call Alumni House Historic Renovation 007 Buzz Bash Dazzling Daylilies Living History Cover Story: Key to the City The Hill Tapping Technology Robotics Rivalry No Easy Ride Giving Back Balancing Act Student Life Burdell & Friends Epic Story of Heroism Yellow Jackets Very Good Team Passport to Retirement Real World

Tech Topics - Fall 2007

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