Thirty-five years ago, in April of 1986, an innovative decision was made by then-Georgia head football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley, when he decided to hire Bob Pittard as the Bulldogs’ Director of Departmental Recruiting. The newly formed full-time position was the first of its kind at Georgia. Breaking precedent, the program’s recruiting coordinator would not serve in a coaching or administrative role.
Coming on the heels of Georgia signing, possibly its least-touted incoming class since the conclusion of World War II, the Pittard hire would ultimately produce consistent recruiting results, the likes of which had never been obtained before by the Bulldog football program.
In his mid-30s at the time, Pittard had worked for several years as, of all things, an award-winning sales rep for now-dissolved Eastern Air Lines. Yet the third-generation UGA alum had been a football coach at Peachtree and Briarcliff high schools and vice-president of the Gwinnett County Bulldog Club. More to the point, Pittard was an avid Georgia Bulldog supporter—one who'd taken a keen interest in recruiting.
“Larry Wages, who had been a standout baseball player for Georgia, was the one who got me into recruiting,” Pittard informed UGASports. “For a few years, I was part of Larry’s group, which would gather at the old Frog Pond Lounge at the Ramada Inn on West Broad Street [in Athens] for signing day.”
It was during the signing-day vigil at the Frog Pond Lounge in 1986 that it became apparent Georgia needed help in its recruiting efforts. The Bulldogs were already serving the second of a two-year probation for recruiting violations, reducing scholarships from 30 to 23. To make matters worse, the infamous Jan Kemp trial, or, according to Dooley at the time, “the trial which came at the absolute worst time for Georgia and the best for our opponents,” was nearing a verdict. For the most part, top-notch recruits, including those in-state, simply did not want to sign and play for the Bulldogs.
For 1986, Georgia signed only 20 players—19 freshmen and a junior-college transfer—including just six of what were considered the top 30 recruits in the state—and only one blue-chip prospect (linebacker Brent Collins of New Market, Tennessee). Subsequently, only 14 of the 20 signees would meet the newly heightened NCAA academic requirements.
“The verdict of the Jan Kemp trial was announced on the same day as National Signing Day in 1986,” Pittard recalled. “It was such a mess for Georgia. The football team got so much bad press. So the signing class, overall, just wasn’t the best group. Therefore I decided to write out a list.”
Pittard wrote out a list of 23 actions Georgia could take to improve its recruiting efforts— most of which, according to him, were “common-sense type things.” The list made its way around the group at the lounge. A few members suggested Coach Dooley should see the list. Everyone agreed. And, just two weeks later, Pittard was sitting in front of Dooley at his office inside the Butts-Mehre Building after an appointment had been made through the head coach’s secretary. By that time, the list had doubled.
“The night before I was to meet with Coach Dooley, I added a 46th point: Georgia should hire a full-time recruiting coordinator,” Pittard said.
In a meeting lasting over an hour, Dooley discussed every point with Pittard. When he reached No. 46, the Georgia head coach mentioned he had actually considered hiring a full-time recruiting coordinator before, but was hesitant to pull the trigger.
“When we got to the 46th point, and Coach Dooley mentioned he had thought about creating the position before, I handed him my resumé and said, ‘I want the job!’” Pittard said.
Two weeks later, Pittard was hired by Georgia on the exact same day he was awarded Salesman of the Year by Eastern Air Lines.
Once at Georgia, Pittard followed a similar in-state-concentrated recruiting process established by Dooley years before. In addition, his aim, according to Pittard in 1986, was “to make the coaches’ jobs easier” with organization, while relieving the staff of paperwork and “administrative things.” And, of course, he always added his personal touch.
“For every player we offered, I hand-wrote them a letter every week,” Pittard said. “And I always ended every letter with, ‘Remember, no one wants you more than the Georgia Bulldogs.’”
In Pittard’s first year on the job, Georgia signed 10 of the top 16 prospects in the state and two of the top running backs from Texas: Rodney Hampton (Houston) and Brian Cleveland (Clairmont). After finishing unranked the year before, the Bulldogs’ 1987 signing class was ranked No. 8 in the country by recruiting expert Joe Terranova.
Following the 1988 season, Dooley stepped down from his post. His running backs coach, Ray Goff, took over for the legendary Georgia head coach. Still, when it came to recruiting, it was business as usual for Pittard.
“After we were made aware of a prospect, and were sent film, I just screened the player. If I thought he was good enough to receive an offer from Georgia, I’d then give the film to the position coach or the coordinator,” Pittard said. “Whether under Coach Dooley or Coach Goff, our rule was at least two coaches had to approve a prospect, including the position coach, for him to receive a scholarship. The position coach could block the offering of a guy—that is, unless the head coach overruled him. The head coach always had the final say-so, and he could overrule anything.”
A year after Georgia’s recruiting class was ranked No. 9 in the nation in 1989, according to distinguished SuperPrep magazine, the Bulldogs signed what was arguably their most highly touted class before Kirby Smart became head coach.
“In 1990, we signed who some considered the national player of the year in receiver Andre Hastings,” Pittard said. “In addition, we signed the player of the year from the states of Georgia (running back Garrison Hearst), Tennessee (defensive lineman Bernard Williams), Alabama (linebacker Mitch Davis), and Colorado (defensive lineman Tashe Williams).”
SuperPrep, The Blue Chip Report, and talent scouts Terranova, Tom Lemming, and Max Emfinger—all five recruiting services—ranked Georgia’s 1990 recruiting class as the third-best in the country.
By the early 1990s, it was said by the Atlanta Constitution, “nobody will outwork . . . recruiting coordinator Bob Pittard.” Spending about half his time on the road, including flying all over the country, and the rest of his time at his office at Georgia, Pittard was instrumental in the Bulldogs landing the nation’s No. 6 and No. 8 recruiting classes in 1991 and 1992, respectively.
After never having done so before in a four-year span beginning the mid-1970s, Georgia’s recruiting classes from 1989-1992 were all ranked in the nation’s top 10 by at least one reputable service. The Bulldogs wouldn’t repeat the four-year milestone again until their recruiting classes from 2002-2005 were all ranked in the top 10 according to Rivals.
Still, Pittard claims he had a lot of assistance in producing consistent recruiting results in his seven-plus years at Georgia.
“What Kirby [Smart] is doing recruiting-wise blows away anything Georgia has ever done, obviously. They’re recruiting on a whole different level now,” Pittard says. “But, what we were able to accomplish was pretty special—and the coaching staffs at the time deserve a lot of the credit. Coach Dooley and Coach Goff had some excellent coaching staffs.”
With the NCAA on the verge of eliminating a football program’s recruiting coordinator as its own full-time position, Pittard resigned from his post in November of 1993. From there, he worked as a sports agent and the Director of Development at the Terry College of Business at UGA. Currently, at 71 years old, Pittard is completing his 15th year of teaching at Jefferson (Ga.) High School, where he annually takes more than two dozen seniors on a World War II tour of Europe.
And although it’s been nearly 30 years since he was last directly associated with the Georgia football program, Pittard remains an avid Georgia Bulldog supporter—and always will be.
“I’ve always been a Georgia guy, and still am,” Pittard said. “I love Georgia.”
