Former Chattanoogan: ‘Happy’ Dicks Has Enjoyed Careers In Football, Medicine And Service

Former Chattanoogan Dr. Robert “Happy” Dicks has indeed had a happy life.

 

And it is not just that he was fortunate to play football at the University of Georgia and then become a neurosurgeon, but also that he has been able to give back through Christian service.

 

“I’ve been given a lot of opportunities,” he said with appreciation.

 

Dr.

Dicks, the brother of Chattanoogan Georgia McCravey and now a resident of Athens, Ga., was recently interviewed over the phone from a winter vacation home he and his wife, Lynn, now enjoy in historic Mountain Lake, Fla. 

 

The conversation was actually in connection with the recent 50^th anniversary of the Jan. 1, 1969, Sugar Bowl game between the SEC champion Georgia Bulldogs of which he was a member as an all-SEC linebacker and the Arkansas Razorbacks.

 

I had written a story about the game in late December and had wanted to talk with him since he was a Chattanooga member of that team, but I had been unable to reach him before the story ran.

 

But when we did get a chance to talk, he kindly reminisced about that game in which Georgia was upset by a score of 16-2.

 

“The game seemed to go by quickly and was definitely a big disappointment for all U.Ga. faithful,” he said. “However, it did not totally diminish the record of our senior class that came in as freshmen in 1965.”

 

Of course, this year’s Sugar Bowl – a 28-21 loss to Texas -- did not go Georgia’s way, either, and he found some similarities between the two games. But he still is a Bulldog through and through, and that started when he was growing up in Chattanooga with no previous ties to the Peach State school.

 

As he looked back on his life, he said his love for sports started at a young age. The son of the late Bob and Leila Dicks played tackle football at Normal Park Elementary when it was one of the first grammar schools to have a program, and he also developed into a baseball pitcher through the knothole gang and later American Legion baseball.

 

His father, who worked in insurance, had gone to Central and the family had roots to the Missionary Ridge area, so at a young age he went to nearby McCallie Camp. However, he later started attending Baylor Camp and fell in love with the school.

 

“I went to camp there for three or four years and became a counselor and loved the campus,” he said.

 

He went to Baylor starting in the seventh grade and it proved to be a perfect fit for him. “Baylor was an unbelievable school,” he said. “My years at Baylor were fantastic. There were the discipline and training (when it was an all-boys military school), and the sports programs were well run.”

 

On the varsity, he competed in football under coach Jim Worthington and assistant Maj. Luke Worsham, basketball under Jack Stanford and baseball under coach Worthington.

 

In basketball, Dr. Dicks’ father had been a semiprofessional basketball player who played against the Celtics, and he encouraged Happy to practice free throws. He did, and in one game against rival McCallie, he was fouled at the end of the game and made both free throws to give Baylor a one-point win.

 

As one of several football players at Baylor to be offered a scholarship to a major college during that time period, he picked Georgia in part due to academics. Through his familiarity with some of his father’s friends – such as Dr. Gus McCravey and Dr. Walter Boehm Sr. – and their families, he had become interested in medicine.

 

Georgia uniquely talked to him about the school’s academic and science offerings, he said, and a recruiting visit left him with the ideal prescription for feeling better about his scholastic and vocational futures.

 

“When I came to Georgia, it was a beautiful campus, and everyone was extremely friendly,” he said. “I met with the head of the pre-med program and he said I could do pre-med and play football, but it would not be easy.”

 

Dr. Dicks, who was nicknamed Happy because his birth came so late that his mother admitted she would be happy when he finally did arrive, was recruited by former Georgia freshmen coach Doc Ayers. The coach had seen his son’s Darlington team from Rome, Ga., play Baylor.

 

At Georgia, he was able to get by academically and athletically by spending a lot of time in the school’s Chemistry Building and the nearby Georgia football facilities.

 

He learned a little about chemistry in football as well – at least regarding the team’s cohesiveness. He said a number of good players arrived in the fall of 1965, and they went undefeated on the freshmen team that year.

 

Several key players, including Dr. Dicks, helped the team win SEC championships in 1966 and 1968. Among his teammates over the years was fellow linebacker Tommy Lawhorne, who was the valedictorian at Georgia and the top student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

 

He also recalled that future NFL players Jake Scott, who had actually gone to prep school for two years, and Bill Stanfill were great, and that Mr. Stanfill was big enough to draw the interest of the pros. Another teammate was Billy Payne, who went on to help bring the 1996 Olympics to Atlanta and until recently was chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club.

 

Of Mr. Stanfill, Mr. Scott and Mr. Payne, Dr. Dicks remembered, “Bill was a big old country boy and Jake was very intelligent and very assured of himself. Billy became a lawyer and did very well in academics. We really played well as a team and everyone knew his position.”

 

In a 1996 interview at the time of the Olympics, Dr. Dicks remembered that Mr. Payne was not pretentious, but was confident, self-assured and had been brought up in a family in which he was told he could achieve anything he wanted.

 

Another teammate was Lee Daniel, who became a well-known lawyer in Dalton, Ga.

 

Among Dr. Dicks’ personal highlights, he recalled intercepting a pass against Mississippi State in 1966 as a sophomore late in the game and helping set up a winning field goal. He also intercepted a pass from Heisman Trophy winner and future successful coach Steve Spurrier against Florida that year, but it was negated due to an offside penalty.

 

Dr. Dicks as a college student also enjoyed farm fields as much football fields due to the influence from some family members. The future Dr. Dicks also became acquainted with Dr. Ken Carrington of Augusta, who had become a Georgia fan after moving to Georgia and met Dr. Dicks’ parents while sitting next to them at a game. As a result, Dr. Dicks helped take care of Dr. Carrington’s farm in Grovetown, Ga., by Augusta in the summer while in college.

 

Dr. Carrington, a neurosurgeon who had played football at Virginia Military Institute, also encouraged Dr. Dicks to focus on the brain as well as a barn. After Dr. Dicks attended Medical College of Georgia, he did a residency and further study in neurosurgery at the University of Michigan, where Dr. Carrington had been.

 

While at Michigan, he worked with Dr. Richard Schneider and made a well-known industry film on athletic head and neck injuries. “It was to help trainers recognize the effects of concussions on the head and when to let players play and it was also about neck injuries,” he said. “It was used for about 20 years.”

 

Dr. Schneider had also developed the Bike helmet in which the inner lining was blown up with air for better protection, Dr. Dicks said.

 

After six years in Michigan, Dr. Dicks returned to Athens to start the Georgia Neurological Surgery practice. The former linebacker became the medical quarterback and worked for 25 years doing surgery and treating brain and neck trauma, removing brain tumors, treating blood clots and aneurysms, and doing spine surgery.

 

“I ended up having back and neck issues and retired in 2003 or 2004, but I continued to work for the hospital,” he said.              

 

Along the way, he also became a Georgia team doctor and later served on the University of Georgia athletic board. “It just kind of worked out,” he said of his post-high school life that included meeting his wife, Lynn, as a senior at Georgia. They have three sons: Alec, who was a captain of the golf team at Dartmouth, and Claude and Spencer.

 

They now have several grandchildren, and he and his wife have also stayed involved with young people by helping with the Young Life Christian outreach program. They are members of First Presbyterian Church in Athens and uniquely attend an Episcopal church when at their Cashiers, N.C., vacation home and a United Methodist church in Florida.

 

Giving to others is more important than personal accomplishments, Dr. Dicks believes.

 

“Try to make the best of what you have,” he said, trying to sum up his entire philosophy of life.

 

Jcshearer2@comcast.net