Vidalia’s McNames left mark with Yellow Jackets

Iconic Georgia Tech football coach Bobby Dodd compiled a record of 165-64-8 during his 22 years on the Flats.

Included in those totals was a national championship in 1952 and SEC titles in 1951 and 1952. Of all those victories, he called Georgia Tech’s 7-6 win over No. 1 Alabama in 1962 the greatest of them all. No player was more instrumental in that victory than Mike McNames, who came out of the sweet onion fields of Vidalia.

The 5-foot-10, 196-pound McNames, who was part of “iron man” football back in those days, playing both offense and defense, was in on all three of the plays that determined the outcome, and forever etched his named in Georgia Tech football history.

In the second quarter, he intercepted a Joe Namath pass, the first of two for him that day, and returned in to the Alabama 14 to set up Tech’s only score of the game.

Two plays after the pick, McNames scored on a 9-yard scamper. A Billy Lothridge conversion gave the Jackets a 7-0 lead.

In the fourth quarter, the Crimson Tide scored to cut Tech’s lead to 7-6, and Alabama head coach Bear Bryant made the decision to go for two.

At the time, there was no overtime in college football and Bryant figured the game would probably end in a 7-all tie, which would derail their hopes for a second straight national title.

He replaced Namath with quarterback Jack Hurlburt, who attempted to score on a running play but was cut down short of the goal line by McNames and Jeff Davis.

McNames was a first-team all-state selection at Vidalia in 1957 and a member of the South all-star team in the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association all-star game in 1958 after leading the Indians to a 9-3 record and a berth in the state Class B semifinals.

In the regional finals, he starred in Vidalia’s 25-7 win over Reidsville, but suffered a bruised kidney, which prevented him from playing in the state semifinals the following week when his team lost to Quitman 41-13.

Mike was not heavily recruited coming out of high school. He had an offer to go to football neophyte Florida State, which started its football program just 10 years earlier, but he turned down the Seminoles to walk on at Georgia Tech.

Dodd told him that if he came in and proved himself as a freshman, he would earn a scholarship, which he did. As a member of the Georgia Tech varsity, he played in 30 games, finishing his career with 739 yards on 191 carries for an average of 3.9 yards per carry, scoring five touchdowns.

As a senior, he was named third-team All-American by the Newspaper Enterprise Association.

The Georgia Tech win over Alabama in 1962 was especially sweet for Dodd. It snapped Alabama’s 26-game unbeaten streak and avenged a 10-0 loss in 1961 that is best remembered for a hit by Alabama linebacker Darwin Holt on Georgia Tech halfback Chick Granning on a punt return that caused a lifelong feud between Dodd and Bryant.

Holt reportedly hit a defenseless Granning with a forearm to the jaw that resulted into multiple facial fractures, five missing teeth and the remainder of the front teeth being broken.

Alabama was accused of dirty play.

Dodd, Amos “Alonzo” Stagg and Bowden Wyatt are the only three men who have been inducted into the College football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.

Dodd, who earned the title “In Dodd We Trust,” was a standout at Tennessee, which went 27-1-2 in his three seasons as quarterback from 1928-30 and was inducted as a player in 1959 and as a coach in 1993.

While being an outstanding college player and coach, he never earned a college degree.

Contact Bobby Pope at bobbypope428@gmail.com.

This story was originally published November 10, 2014 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Vidalia’s McNames left mark with Yellow Jackets ."