By Brad Ramsey

John Dobbins is quick to point out that his days running out of the Virginia Tech backfield were good, but rough.

Not rough in the sense you may be thinking.

True, he garnered his fair share of bumps and bruises. But it took a tough individual to endure the pain inflicted upon Dobbins.

John Dobbins was the first African-American scholarship football player at Virginia Tech, having lettered from 1970-1972. Not exactly post-integration. But despite that, Dobbins said he never has thought of himself as pioneer.

"I just wanted to be remembered as a hard-working individual," he said. "One who enjoyed what I was doing."

Yet sometimes opposing teams and fans made that hard.

"There was mostly just a lot of name calling and stuff," Dobbins said. "Especially when we would visit schools down South. The southern areas were pretty scary overall."

Dobbins did plenty on the field to draw attention to his ability and away from his race. In his first season of play, Dobbins had 74 carries for 365 yards and six receptions for 62 yards. He also had a 24.4-yard average on eight kickoff returns. Dobbins went on to amass 1,261 all-purpose yards in his three-year career (freshmen were ineligible to play collegiate football until 1972).

"I was well accepted at Tech," Dobbins said. "I was scared [at Tech] too, at first. But after I got to know all the guys, we realized we were all from different places and different backgrounds. We seemed to blend pretty well."

Dobbins had no trouble recalling the good times and the bad. He said his most memorable moment at Tech was his first touchdown.

"It was late in the second quarter, down at South Carolina," Dobbins said. "It was unusual for Don Strock [Tech's quarterback] to run it. But he ran the option and pitched it to me and I ran 56 yards. They beat us by a touchdown, but that doesn't stick in my mind as much."

Dobbins' least favorite moment was a 55-35 loss to Alabama. The game was played in rain and sleet in Birmingham, a place with not much Southern hospitality at the time.

"The name-calling and stuff at other places wasn't that big of a deal to me," he said. "It was just a bunch of trash talk like there is today. That hasn't changed."

Granted, that hasn't changed. But Dobbins has seen his fair share of change in the 27 years since he left Virginia Tech.

Following his playing days, Dobbins accepted a job in the Roanoke County public school system in 1973. He taught a distributive education program through a pre-vocational school.

"Essentially it was on-the-job training for kids," he said. "It kind of got them ready for the real world."

Just when Dobbins thought he was beginning to settle in, he got an unexpected phone call from Al Kinzer, a former mayor of Radford. Kinzer had been selected to be the first personnel director for White Motor Company's Dublin plant. Kinzer had seen John Dobbins grow up in Radford, watched him play football and knew the kind of work ethic he possessed. Kinzer is now the CEO of Volkswagen and that White Motor Company facility is now Volvo of Dublin.

"When we first started as White Motor, we had no assembly line," Dobbins said. "Our first project was to build five trucks and it took us six months to do it."

Dobbins is now a production supervisor at the plant which cranks out 165 trucks a day. Expansion is currently underway which will allow the plant to produce 200 trucks a day. At an average selling price of $90,000 each, that's $18 million in daily inventory.

Dobbins still faithfully follows Virginia Tech football. He is a season ticket holder and says that he always catches the game on the radio if he can't be there or watch it on television.

"It's great this year," Dobbins said. "All the road games seem to be on television. I think people all around the country are finally seeing what were all about." Dobbins attributes much of Virginia Tech's recent success to head coach Frank Beamer.

"Beamer is fantastic," Dobbins said. "I'm glad they stuck with him. I think he has helped the program more than anything. It always helps to stick with a coach for a long period of time."

Dobbins has been married 28 years to the former Dora Akers. They were married during his junior year, after which Dora went right to work.

"She's been working the longest," Dobbins said. "So she wants to retire, which means I can't."

Dobbins has a 26-year-old daughter, who lives in Greensboro, N.C., and a 22-year-old son who lives in Manassas, Va. He is hoping the family will mirror the expansion of his workplace.

"My wife and I sure are hoping," Dobbins said. "For grandkids, that is."

You have to believe that a man who has given so much of his talent will see that wish come true.

Huddler Notes
The Hokie Hudler newspaper consists of the ever-popular "Insider" section with interesting bits of inside information. The Huddler also consists of columns by Robertson and Bill Roth, the Voice of the Hokies, and assistant editor Neal Richards, which focus on everything dealing with the 21 varsity sports at Tech.

Then, there is also, of course, game information on primarily football, men's and women's basketball and baseball. Fans can get the depth chart (during football season), features on players, statistics and standings, notes and quotes and recruiting profiles on football and men's and women's basketball recruits along with information on recruits in other sports as well.

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Jimmy Robertson is the editor of the Hokie Huddler at Virginia Tech. The Hokie Huddler is the athletics department newspaper that is printed 33 times a year - weekly during football and basketball seasons and bi-monthly during the spring.