William Alexander ( coach ) William Anderson Alexander ( June 6 , 1889 – April 23 , 1950 ) was an American football player and coach . He served as the head football coach at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1920 to 1944 , compiling a record of 134 – 95 – 15 . Alexander has the second most victories of any Tech football coach . Alexander ' s 1928 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have been recognized as national champions by a number of selectors . Alexander was the first college football coach to place his teams in the four major post - season bowl games of the time : Sugar , Cotton , Orange and Rose . His teams won three of the four bowls . The 1929 Rose Bowl win , which earned his team the national championship , is the most celebrated because of the wrong - way run by California ' s Roy Riegels . Alexander was also the head basketball coach at Georgia Tech for four seasons from 1919 to 1924 . He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951 . Player . Alexander played football under John Heisman and was appointed captain of the " scrubs . " In his senior year he played in the Georgia and Clemson games long enough to win a letter . Alexander graduated from Georgia Tech in 1912 with a degree in civil engineering . Valedictorian of his class , he was also a brother of the Kappa Sigma fraternity . Coach . " Old Aleck , " as Alexander was called , succeeded John Heisman as the head coach at Georgia Tech in April 1920 . Alexander had been an assistant coach for Heisman and a math teacher in the classroom at Georgia Tech . The " Technique " said of him : As a new coach , he led Georgia Tech to three Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles ( 1920 , 1921 , 1922 ) and its second national championship in 1928 . Alexander was the first college football coach to place his teams in the four major post - season bowl games of the time : Sugar , Cotton , Orange and Rose . His teams won three of the four bowls . Alexander ' s 1928 team would be the very first Tech team to attend a bowl game . The team had amassed a perfect 9 – 0 record and was invited to the 1929 Rose Bowl to play California . Tech traveled by train to meet the awaiting Golden Bears . The game was a defensive struggle with the first points being scored after a Georgia Tech fumble . The loose ball was scooped up by California Center Roy Riegels and then accidentally returned in the wrong direction . Riegels returned the ball all the way to Georgia Tech ' s 3 yard line . After Riegels was finally stopped by his own team , the Bears opted to punt from the end zone . The punt was blocked and converted by Tech into a safety giving Tech a 2 – 0 lead . Cal would score a touchdown and point after but Tech would score another touchdown to finally win the game 8 – 7 . This victory made Tech the 10 – 0 undefeated National Champions of 1928 . It was Tech ' s second National Title in 11 years . During the previous season , Alexander instituted " the Plan . " Tech and UGA had just renewed their annual rivalry game in 1925 after an eight - year . Georgia was highly rated to start the 1927 season and justified their rating throughout the season going 9 – 0 in their first 9 games . Alexander ' s plan was to minimize injuries by benching his starters early no matter the score of every game before the UGA finale . On December 3 , 1927 , UGA rolled into Atlanta on the cusp of a National Title . Tech ' s well rested starters shut out the Bulldogs 12 – 0 and ended any chance of UGA ' s first National Title . Coach Alexander found campus spirit to be particularly low during the Great Depression . His successful football program and the other athletic teams had very few student fans attending the games . He helped to establish a spirit organization known as the Yellow Jacket Club in 1930 to bolster student spirit . The group would later become the Ramblin ' Reck Club . Alexander also had a sense of humor . Whenever he diagrammed a football play , he always drew very small " x ' s " to represent Georgia Tech players and very large circles to represent the opposing players . In 1944 Coach Alexander retired as head football coach but remained Georgia Tech ' s athletic director until his death in 1950 . Alexander has the second most victories of any Tech football coach . Legacy . Alexander was succeeded as head coach by one of his assistants , Bobby Dodd , who became the most successful head football coach in Georgia Tech history . Dodd lionized Coach Alexander which was later reflected in his coaching style . " He taught me to treat athletes as men , not boys - to never use their failings as an alibi for a loss , " Dodd said . The Alexander Memorial Coliseum ( recently renamed Hank McCamish Pavilion ) , the home arena of Georgia Tech ' s basketball teams , was named after him .