As a college football player, he led the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to an undefeated season in 1952 and later became their head coach.
Rodgers was born in Atlanta,[2] where he became a three-sport star in football, basketball and baseball at Brown High School.
[1] Rodgers played college football at Georgia Tech under head coach Bobby Dodd, where he was a backup quarterback and placekicker as a sophomore in 1951.
[3] As a junior in 1952, he led the Yellow Jackets to an undefeated 12–0 season and share of the national championship after throwing for a touchdown and kicking a field goal in a 24–7 win in the 1953 Sugar Bowl over Mississippi.
[4] Rodgers was selected in the 12th round of the 1954 NFL draft by the Baltimore Colts,[1] but remained at Georgia Tech for a year, earning a BS degree in industrial management while also serving as a student assistant on Dodd's staff.
[2] Competing in the Pac-8 Conference, he installed the wishbone offense and with junior college transfer quarterback Mark Harmon in 1972, the Bruins upset top-ranked and two-time defending champion Nebraska in the season opener, snapping the Huskers' 32-game unbeaten streak.
[16] At 69, Rodgers was considered for the Washington Redskins' head coaching position before Norv Turner's eventual firing during the 2000 season.
[18][19][20] Rodgers wrote Fourth and Long Gone, a novel published in 1985 that is a bawdy roman à clef of his experiences as a college football coach and recruiter.