Georgia Tech great Rodgers dead at 88
ATLANTA — Pepper Rodgers, a colorful personality who helped Georgia Tech to an unbeaten football season as a player in 1952 and went on to coach the Yellow Jackets as well as Kansas and UCLA plus professional teams for Memphis in both the USFL and the CFL, died Thursday. He was
88. A statement from his alma mater said Rodgers died in Reston, Virginia, where he lived after retiring from his final job, which was in the NFL as the Washington Redskins’ vice president of football operations in 2004. No cause of death was given, but he had recently fallen. “I am devastated to learn of the passing of Pepper Rodgers,” said Tech athletic director
Todd Stansbury, a former Yellow Jackets player who was recruited by Rodgers. “He was a Georgia Tech legend.” A quarterback and kicker, Rodgers was part of Tech teams that went 32-2-3, earned two Southeastern Conference championships and won three major bowl games during his three years on the varsity in an era when freshman were not eligible per NCAA rules. He capped a 12-0 season in 1952 by throwing a touchdown pass, kicking a field goal and adding three extra points in a 24-7 victory over Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl. Tech finished No. 1 in the International News Service poll but was No. 2 behind Michigan State in polls from The Associated Press and coaches. When he returned to Tech as coach in 1974, he showed up riding a Harley-Davidson and sporting a perm, a sign of the freewheeling style that often put him at odds with his bosses and staid alumni. When coaching in the USFL, he once wore a tuxedo on the flight to play a game against the New Jersey Generals, a big-spending franchise owned by future president
Donald Trump. Rodgers posted a record of 34-31-2 over six seasons leading Tech, finishing his college coaching career with an overall mark of 73-65-3.
› NFL teams can begin reopening their facilities Tuesday if state and local governments will allow it. In a memo sent to the 32 teams Friday by commissioner Roger Goodell and obtained by the AP, he stressed the clubs must be “in compliance with any additional public health requirements in their jurisdiction, and have implemented the protocols that were developed by (league medical officer) Dr. (Allen) Sills and distributed to all clubs on May 6.” Facilities have been closed since late March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Each team was required to submit a plan to the league for reopening its training/practice facility this week.
GOLF
› Rory McIlroy said he wouldn’t play golf with Donald Trump again and doubts he would even be invited after questioning the U.S. president’s leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. McIlroy did an hour-plus interview for the McKellar Journal podcast in which the 31-year-old professional golfer from Northern Ireland was asked whether he regretted the February 2017 round with Trump because of criticism on social media. “I haven’t done it since … out of choice,” McIlroy said. McIlroy, No. 1 in the World Golf Ranking, said three years ago he played with President Trump out of respect for the office. He said on the podcast he enjoyed his day at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. He said Trump was charismatic, personable and treated everyone well, from the players in the group to the workers in the cart barn. “So I will sit here and say that day I had with him, I enjoyed,” McIlroy said. “But that doesn’t mean I agree with everything — or, in fact, anything — that he says.” McIlroy will help bring live golf back to television Sunday by teaming with fifth-ranked Dustin Johnson in a charity skins match against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida, an exhibition intended to raise upward of $4 million for COVID-19 relief funds.