Bobby Dodd

Most of you have no idea who Bobby Dodd was. I decided that the world would keep spinning if I took another week off from macroeconomics and had some fun sharing my past with you. 

My high school football team played for the state championship of Florida in 1963. It was a close game and we were behind the Tampa Robinson High School football team with only seconds left. Coach Kotys could have put in Larry Rentz at quarterback and tried a hail Mary but instead he looked at me and said, "son, get in there and kick a field goal." I had kicked a few field goals that year and it seemed logical enough until I realized that I might have pooped my pants before running on the field. Larry Rentz held the ball and I kicked it and the Gods shined on us as the ball somehow found that sweet spot between those goal posts.  

As an 18 year old virgin I was pretty sure that kick would get me laid, but it didn't turn out that way. But I was a home town hero for a little while and that was enough to get me a scholarship to play for the legendary college football coach at Georgia Tech, Bobby Dodd. Back then, Georgia Tech football must have been very rich because I was probably one of about 50 freshmen arriving at Tech that summer on full scholarship. Anyway, one of the highlights of my life was the honor of going to such a fine school. No, I didn't  play very much on the team but Coach Dodd let me sit on the bench until I graduated.  

And that seems to be the story of my life. I kinda luck into things. I was called a B+ student in high school -- more interested in sports and girls than studying. Football got me to a school well above my pay grade. Tech was hard. As Jim Kiltie, my Tech roommate and dear friend today is fond of saying -- I spent a lot of time in our room in Smith Dorm studying. I did not want to flunk out and as I said, I wasn't the brightest bulb in the package. Somehow God smiled on me and by the time I left Tech I was a pretty decent student. 

Then luck came along again. In this case, it was mostly bad luck that turned into good luck. The Vietnam War draft came along and my draft board was nice enough to let me finish college and start a MS degree at Tech before I had to enlist. Would I have gone to graduate school without the draft -- hell no. Anyway I got a taste of grad school before the Air Force and then with no other plans after I left the Air Force, I finished that MS at Tech and then went to the University of North Carolina for a PhD in economics. 

I was a pretty good student by then and it turns out that the Business Economics Department at Indiana University wanted to hire someone like me in 1976. They offered me a job but it was contingent on my finishing my doctoral dissertation in one year. Yikes. My topic was the Nixon Wage and Price Controls. I did finish it in a year and concluded that the controls were a failure. No, they didn't control wages or prices. The process colored my approach to research all these years -- taking a skeptical eye toward many government policies. No, I am not very impressed by President Joe's policies. 

So what? If anything, the words above remind me that life is a crap shoot. None of it could have been predictable. I feel so fortunate to be 76 years old, to have friends & family, and a lot of wonderful memories. It is very much the time to be thankful and compassionate. 

Thanks for listening. 

PS While the above might be long and boring it omits many people who helped me through life. I intend no ill will towards the friends, family, teachers, and colleagues who were a big part of my life. I hope to embarrass them in subsequent posts.