Clint Castleberry
The countdown to kickoff is officially on as Georgia Tech‘s season-opening matchup at Colorado on Aug. 29 is less than 100 days away.
Until then JOL will be counting it down with one Jackets’ player daily that wore the corresponding number of days remaining until toe meets leather in Boulder.
With it now 19 days until kickoff in Boulder, today’s focus is on the legendary No. 19 Clint Castleberry, a young man that did incredible things on the field during his one season playing for the Jackets and followed that up by heeding the call to serve his country and eventually making the ultimate sacrifice during World War II.
Castleberry, whose No. 19 is the only permanent retired number in Georgia Tech Football’s program history, came to The Flats after an impressive high school athletics career at the former Boys High in Atlanta where he was a All-State selection in football, baseball and basketball and led his team to a state title on the gridiron in 1941. He had offers from several college football powerhouses at the time but chose to stay close to home and play for the Yellow Jackets.
With World War II causing college football rosters around the country to be limited, the NCAA altered a previous rule that didn’t allow freshman to play on the varsity level, which opened the door for Castleberry’s one and only season at Tech. It proved to be a historic one to say the least.
Castleberry primarily played halfback, mesmerizing opposing defenses with his speed and skillset, but also spent time on special teams and was inserted on crucial situations on defense as well. He helped Tech to a 13-6 in at Notre Dame in the second game of the season, snapping a 14-year losing streak to the Irish. In fact, Castleberry and the Jackets rolled to a 9-0 record to start the season with victories over Auburn, Notre Dame, Chattanooga, Davidson, Navy, Duke, Kentucky, Alabama and Florida.
The Jackets, led by head coach William Alexander in his 23rd season, would end up falling to rival Georgia and then losing a close battle to Texas in the Cotton Bowl 14-7 to finish the season 9-2 but were still ranked No. 5 in the final Associated Press (AP) Poll.
For Castleberry, the individual accolades rolled in as he was the first underclassmen ever named First-Team All-SEC at the time and he finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting, the highest finish by a freshman until Adrian Peterson finished second in 2004.
Following the 1942 season, Castleberry withdrew from Georgia Tech and immediately enlisted in the Army Air Forces. After going through Army flight training, he “earned his wings” in 1944, acquired the rank of Second Lieutenant and was sent to the Mediterranean to serve.
In early November, 1944 Castleberry’s plane “Dream Girl,” a B-26, and another plane were given the assignment of taking supplies to troops in Dakar, Senegal. Both planes disappeared and were never seen again. After a six-day search that resulted in no findings, Castleberry and the rest of the crew aboard the two planes were declared dead.
Castleberry’s plan was to re-enroll at Georgia Tech and complete his academic and athletic career following his service to his country, but the man who was once called “Jackrabbit” by a newspaper article following a game never got that chance.
You will still find the name Clint Castleberry all around Bobby Dodd Stadium in tribute to what he did as a Jacket but more importantly what he did for the U.S.A. He was inducted into the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1956, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1956 and the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 2022.