ATHENS -- Georgia Bulldogs legend Charley Trippi received a surprise visitor Tuesday as coach Kirby Smart showed up with a birthday cake, complete with 100 candles on top. And Trippi surprised the coach back by blowing out every one on the occasion of his 100th birthday.
“Being such a great second-effort athlete, he wouldn’t stop until he blew them all out,” Smart said in a release sent by the school Tuesday afternoon. “I was really overwhelmed. He was perhaps the greatest all-around football player on our campus. Many historians and observers have said that. And from reading about him, I understand why.”
Indeed, there are few other Georgia athletes in the history of UGA who can be included in a conversation with Trippi as the Bulldogs’ greatest athlete of all time. But he was especially good at football, leading Georgia to a national championship in 1942 and an undefeated season in 1946, and Trippi is a member of the college and pro halls of fame.
Trippi was selected No. 1 by the Chicago Cardinals in the 1945 NFL draft -- more than a year before he left college. After signing the richest contract to date -- $100,000 for four years -- Trippi made the Cardinals look good by leading them to the 1947 NFL championship as a rookie. By the end of his career, he had accumulated more than 7,000 total yards and accounted for 50 touchdowns while lining up as a quarterback, halfback, defensive back, punter, and return specialist. Later, he was selected as a member of the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1940s.
Before entering his NFL career full time, Trippi played professional baseball for the minor-league Atlanta Crackers and hit .343. He also was an All-SEC baseball player and ran track for the Bulldogs.
After his professional career, Trippi returned to Athens and coached baseball and football at UGA.
“He is proud to be a Bulldog,” Smart said. “His legacy, like that of so many of the great players who have come through here, has enabled us to develop one of the great traditions in college football.”
In addition to Smart, Trippi was surrounded by family and friends, including his wife, Peggy; his daughter, Brenda Fleeman; his grandson, Clint Watson; and Lenn Chandler of the National Football Foundation.
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