Richard Hyatt: Carrying on a family tradition

Saying Seaborn Anderson Roddenbery V has a deep relationship with the University of Georgia is like saying bulldogs are a noble breed.

His grandfather, Andy Jr., quarterbacked three Georgia football teams and graduated in 1938. Decades later he served on the athletic board that hired Vince Dooley as head coach.

In 2000, Andy the fifth graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UGA, like his grandfather. When the Bulldogs play at home, he and his family enjoy an elaborate tailgate meal outside Sanford Stadium and then sit in the same seats that the Roddenberys have kept warm for more than 50 years.

“When he was in med school in Augusta he only missed one home game, and that was my fault,” said his father, Ed, the owner of a local insurance agency and a former Bulldog golfer. “The pilot wouldn’t fly us to Nashville so he had to miss the Vandy game that year.”

Andy Jr. died in 2010, ending a distinguished career that began when a group of Athens businessmen financed his education at the Harvard Medical School. His grandson followed him into medicine and came home to become a general surgeon at St. Francis Hospital.

When the University of Georgia recently honored its fifth 40 Under 40 class of alumni, it was logical to include the name of Dr. Andy Roddenbery V — a name connected to the school since the Bulldogs ran an offense known as the Notre Dame Box.

The story is told that the older Roddenbery was headed to a career in coaching until he was a fishing guide for a group of football people on a lake in Canada. Rex Enright, the coach at the University of South Carolina, was on that trip and somehow he got snagged in the head by a treble hook.

Enright was hurting but nobody removed it. Using a pair of needle-nosed pliers, Roddenberry extracted the hook. Everyone on board said he ought to become a doctor — and for the next 65 years he was.

Andy V was expected to watch the Bulldogs play those same Gamecocks from Columbia, something he has done since 1980.

“I enjoy the competition and seeing old friends but it’s not about me anymore,” he said. “I have three young children and I like to see them enjoying themselves. I guess I’m carrying on a family tradition.”

Richard Hyatt is an independent correspondent. Reach him at hyatt31906@knology.net.

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 10:18 PM with the headline "Richard Hyatt: Carrying on a family tradition."