Bob Etter: Central Grad Has Shined Over The Years As A Kicker, Bridge Player

In the 1960s and 1970s, Central High graduate Bob Etter was known for using his foot to become a standout kicker for the Georgia Bulldogs and later the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL and Memphis of the old World Football League.

 

These days he is known more for using his “hands” of the playing card variety to become a national champion bridge player.

 

And through most of his life, including as a professor, the son of former Central and Baylor football coach E.B.

“Red” Etter and younger brother of former Baylor baseball coach Gene Etter has been able to use his brain positively and advantageously.

 

As the former Mr. Central High of 1963 recently talked over the phone from his home in Sacramento, Calif., he said he travels around the country with his wife, Margie, playing in a lot of bridge tournaments these days.

 

“I play in about 25 tournaments a year,” said the 73-year-old retiree, who won a national championship with his partner in 1981 and 1998 “We travel a lot to visit family and incorporate bridge tournaments.”

 

He said he enjoys bridge for a variety of reasons. “The ability to think logically and the ability to remember things and the ability to think if somebody had this card.”  

 

While his wife does not play bridge, she does join with him in playing video poker. She can actually play video hands faster then he does, he said, and the couple won $1,000 five times by getting five royal flushes during a recent visit to Las Vegas for a bridge tournament.

 

So what is their secret?

 

“We practice every day on a video machine online, but we don't have any secrets,” he said. “It's a lot like being successful in sports or business. You study a lot and practice a lot. Out of the hundreds of thousands of video poker machines in Las Vegas, there are probably a couple of hundred that are advantageous for the player.

 

“Why they have such machines, I have never understood. Perhaps the advertising of these machines brings in enough customers to increase the casino's profits. Most players don't know which machines are the right ones to play, and if they did, they wouldn't know the correct strategy.”

 

Besides enjoying the occasional royal flushes, Mr. Etter also obviously gets a royal blush in being with his wife. He said he has found marital bliss, calling her his “fourth and final wife.” He said he actually met her when she was a student in 1996 in his math class at Sacramento State (formally known as California State University, Sacramento), where he taught for 32 years. But she had moved to Sacramento from St. Louis in 1978, the same year he did.

 

“She was by far the best student in my math class in 1996,” he said. “It’s amazing how people find each other.”

 

Like with marrying his wife, he ended up in California due to a heart-felt decision, even though he has been known for using more deliberate and meticulous strategy in many of his other successful endeavors.

 

He said the dream started when he would go with his mother and father for a two-week trip each summer to visit older brother Gene when he was playing minor league baseball. In 1964, Gene was playing in Wenatchee, Wash., so they went through the Dakotas on the way up there, and through California, Arizona and Texas on the way back.

 

The return trip through the westernmost state obviously grabbed his attention.

 

“I fell in love with California and made up my mind that I was going to live there when I ‘grew up.’ The opportunity finally came in 1978,” he said.

 

Although he has been in California for nearly 40 years, he still vividly recalls his time playing football at Georgia like it was yesterday. The former Central kicker and reserve quarterback had arrived at Georgia in 1963 and played on the freshmen team that fall before first-year players were eligible for the varsity.

 

Fellow Central High graduates Dickie Phillips and Harry Phillips also joined him on the team. Dickie became a standout Georgia player, while Harry – later a Chattanooga area high school principal at Tyner – unfortunately got hurt the last practice before the traditional freshmen game against Georgia Tech and had to stop playing. He did continue on as a student trainer.

 

After Mr. Etter’s freshmen year, Georgia would replace head coach Johnny Griffith, a former Bulldog player who had experienced an unsuccessful three-year stint. The new coach was a young Auburn assistant named Vince Dooley. Few outside Auburn knew much about him.

 

But Mr. Etter said he quickly became impressed with the program Coach Dooley was organizing. “It was the beginning of a new era,” he said.

 

Although he was the kicker – a straight-on one a few years before soccer-style kicking became the norm – Mr. Etter would also help the team during practice by holding a blocking dummy or running pass patterns.

 

“I had a lot of time to observe and to see the dedication of the coaches and how well everything was organized,” he said. “They went over plays over and over again more than other schools. They made sure the guys knew their assignments.”

 

 

He said that Coach Dooley was kind of quiet on the practice field, with defensive coordinator Erk Russell – later the successful coach at Georgia Southern – serving as the “holler” coach kind of like Stan Farmer was for his father, “Red” Etter, at Central.

 

But the players did almost fear Coach Dooley, although Mr. Etter said he did not. That was due in part to a visit Mr. Etter made to his office shortly before spring practice of 1964 wondering if he could still play baseball as hoped.

 

“I told him that my agreement with the previous coaching regime was to play both baseball and football,” Mr. Etter recalled. “I asked him if I would still be able to play baseball. He said no, that I would have to go through spring practice. I accepted that answer.

 

“But just after leaving his office, it occurred to me that I meant to say baseball in addition to spring practice, not instead of.  So I went back to his office and explained this to him. He said he would get back to me. A couple of days later he said that I could play baseball, but I had to do specialty drills at the beginning of each practice-then go to baseball practice. I was glad I had the courage to go back to his office.”

 

Mr. Etter, obviously used to being around coaches through his father, said they had a great relationship after that. Years later, Coach Dooley came to visit him twice in Sacramento, he said.

 

On one occasion they went to the NCAA track and field meet that happened to be taking place in Sacramento, and went out on the field and talked with the athletes while they competed.

 

And Coach Dooley, who in his later years since coaching has become quite interested in gardening and horticulture, also wanted to see the various trees from around the world that were planted at Capitol Park by the California state capitol there.

 

“He knew all about that,” Mr. Etter remembered. “He was also a historian. He was very cerebral.”

 

Like the trees, Mr. Etter also stood figuratively tall during his time playing for coach Dooley in football, despite his diminutive size. And that was especially true in 1964, when he was playing against Florida in the annual showdown in Jacksonville.

 

And despite the fact he was a kicker, his most famous college play would actually come as a runner.

 

As U.Ga. football historian and writer Patrick Garbin recounts in his online blog in a post from 2012 that includes film of that game, Florida had beaten Georgia eight out of the previous nine games and was comfortably favored to win this one.

 

However, Georgia managed to tie the game 7-7 early in the fourth quarter and actually got a turnover and began driving again. The drive stalled at the Florida 5, though, so coach Dooley called for a field goal attempt with a little more than eight minutes remaining.

 

A low snap went through holder Barry Wilson’s hands but right to where Mr. Etter was standing. Coach Dooley had taught the players to yell “fire” when something like that happened, so that is what Mr. Etter did as he picked the ball up and ran around the left end.

 

As he recounted in the recent interview, he also did something else that was actually more instinctual, perhaps dating back to his days as the third-string quarterback at Central.

 

“I raised up my arm as if to pass, and the film showed the defensive back retreating and I ran into the end zone,” he said.

 

After a goal-line tackle sent him sideways, the Georgia fans emotionally went upside down with delirium, too.

 

His older brother, Gene, had also experienced an unusual play as well for Tennessee when he caught a deflected pass he had thrown in 1958 against Ole Miss, and it is part of Vol football lore, too.

 

Although Florida was able to mount a late drive that went past midfield, Georgia was able to hang on for a 14-7 win after Bob Etter’s heroics.

 

Mr. Etter said that whole 1964 season was memorable, as Georgia had struggled with mediocrity dating back to the 1949 season, except for the lone bright season of 1959, when quarterback Fran Tarkenton helped Georgia win the SEC.

 

“We were underdogs in every game,” he remembered of that season.

 

The team went on to beat Georgia Tech for the first time since 1960 and then defeated Texas Tech in the Sun Bowl after slowing down standout runner Donnie Anderson in a game in which Georgia had scouted the Red Raiders well.

 

“I asked Dickie Phillips (after the Texas Tech game) what percentage of plays did he know they what they were going to run, and he said every one of them,” Mr. Etter recalled.

 

The next year, 1965, Mr. Etter would kick three field goals that would prove to be the difference in a memorable upset win at Michigan. And in 1966, he kicked a key field goal late in the season opener against Mississippi State after another Chattanoogan, Baylor School grad Happy Dicks, was involved in getting a key turnover. The Bulldogs would go on to tie for first in the SEC that year.

 

Mr. Etter said he enjoyed many of the teammates, including future doctor Dicks, who was two years behind him.

 

“I remember Happy as being well named. Not only was he a good linebacker, he seemed to be upbeat and always in a good mood,” he recalled.

 

Besides the Phillips brothers, other good friends on the Georgia team included roommate George White, twins Bill and Bob McWhorter, and quarterback Kirby Moore, among several others.

 

He recalls that Edgar Chandler was a great player for Georgia, as was offensive tackle Jim Wilson. He said that coach Dooley had a knack for finding the right position for the players and, as an example, remembered that George Patton had been a quarterback, but became a defensive standout.

 

Georgia also had some linemen much smaller than those of today, he added, and said Vince’s brother, Bill, was a good assistant coach with the Georgia offensive linemen. Mr. Etter said he would watch the films of the games and be amazed at how well they blocked.

 

Besides kicking the ball over the crossbar on the field, Mr. Etter also set a pretty high bar for himself academically at Georgia. His senior year, he became the first of six Georgia players in a row to be named the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Scholar Athlete/Earl Blaik Fellowship honoree.

 

In 1968 and 1969, Mr. Etter was the kicker for the Atlanta Falcons, and in 1974 and 1975, he kicked for the Memphis Southmen/Grizzlies of the WFL, wearing No. 3 at both places after adorning jersey No. 11 with Georgia.

 

Although proud of his pro career, he said he never really made a game-winning kick, although he did kick a field goal in the fourth quarter once with the Falcons and the team won by three.

 

In the WFL, he had a chance once with an attempt of over 50 yards against Portland in 1974, but missed it. Later that year in the semifinals of the playoffs, he had a chance to tie the game against Orlando-based Florida to get to the championship game, but it was blocked. Unfortunately for him, in that game against another “Florida” team, his luck was not quite as good.

 

Among his teammates in the pros was the well-known linebacker Tommy Nobis with the Falcons. He called Mr. Nobis one of the best ever, but one who didn’t get the accolades he deserved. Mr. Etter thought he was better than the well-known Chicago Bears linebacker Dick Butkus but was hampered by injuries.

 

“He was the best, and he was a nice guy,” he recalled.

 

He also played with former Miami Dolphin stars Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield with Memphis after Canadian team owner John Bassett – the father of noted woman pro tennis player Carling Bassett – signed them.

 

Mr. Etter said those three were also nice guys. “They were all friendly,” he said. “Everybody liked them. They didn’t act arrogant.”

 

Mr. Etter was soon California dreaming, and within a few years settled there and began his long teaching career before retiring in 2010.

 

These days, he also enjoys playing golf regularly, although he just plays for fun and does not participate in tournaments in this sport that is probably the hardest to master consistently.

 

But he does have goals in the sport. “I have a goal to shoot my age,” he said with a laugh, adding that he shoots in about the 80s on 18 holes and in the high 30s on nine holes on courses that are not overly hard.

 

He mentioned that the weather there is ideal for playing the sport year-round.

 

Mr. Etter – who went by Bobby as a youngster but later started going by Bob in college -- also spends plenty of time keeping up with his children. Oldest son Glenn, 52, lives in Shelburne, Vt., and has been a teacher and raft guide over the years.

 

Glenn, who lived some with Bob’s parents in Chattanooga when he was younger, was a prestigious Morehead Scholar (now Morehead-Cain Scholar) at the University of North Carolina after graduating from Baylor School in 1984.

 

Daughter Lori, 49, is a dermatologist in Durham, N.C., after teaching at Baylor one year. She has an 11-year-old daughter and Glenn has an 8-year-old son, and Mr. Etter thinks both are wonderful – as a proud grandfather should.

 

Mr. Etter also has two twin sons who are 25 – Jack and Jordan Etter. Jordan carried on the family athletic traditions by participating in track, he said.

 

In 2002, primarily due to his unusual touchdown in the 1964 game, Mr. Etter was inducted into the Georgia-Florida Hall of Fame along with former Georgia quarterback and coach Ray Goff. He said he had never met coach Goff before that ceremony and enjoyed being with him.

 

Mr. Etter still follows Georgia’s football fortunes, too, and is pleased the Bulldogs are doing well.  He has been a big fan of former Georgia running Nick Chubb, he said, and has followed his career since he was a freshman, when Mr. Etter thought he looked even better than current NFL star Todd Gurley before getting hurt against Tennessee as a sophomore.

 

He is glad to see Mr. Chubb has recovered from the injury and is now a solid rookie with the Cleveland Browns, he said.

 

He also likes Kirby Smart, the Georgia coach, who has led the Dawgs to two straight SEC East division championships, including a matchup against SEC West winner Alabama this Saturday for the SEC championship.

 

“Kirby Smart has done a great job as the football coach,” he said. “But it will take a lot to overcome Alabama.”

 

Mr. Etter may have started California dreaming years ago, as the song says, but, in the words of Ray Charles, he obviously still has Georgia on his mind, too.

 

Jcshearer2@comcast.net