FRECKLED AND BROAD-CHESTED , with fading white-blond hair and a robust mustache, "in first-rate health" from years of navigating the austere conditions of the desert Southwest, Dr. Leonard Wood rode in, quite literally, to save the day for Georgia Tech football.

The 33-year-old first lieutenant, newly settled in as a post surgeon at nearby Fort McPherson, arrived on horseback to the Georgia Tech campus in the fall of 1893. He registered as a "sub-apprentice" in a woodworking course -- essentially learning cabinet and furniture making -- so he could qualify as a student.

Any aspirations of becoming a master craftsman, though, were secondary. Unbeknownst to the students at that eight-year-old technical school on the northern edge of Atlanta, the man atop that steed would become their fi

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