ATLANTA – Eddie Lee Ivery, a former Georgia Tech all-America running back who spent 10 years with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League, has joined the Georgia Tech athletics staff as an assistant strength and conditioning coach.
Ivery, 44, assists the player development staff in all sports, but is working primarily with the football team.
“Eddie Lee works hard and, being a former Tech football player relates well to our athletes,” said director of player development Jay Omer. “He’s a good addition to our staff.”
A 1992 graduate of Tech, Ivery coached at Thomson (Ga.) High School, his alma mater, from 1988-90. He has also worked as a resource coordinator for a pre-kindergarten program and as a peer counselor for Outreach, Inc., in his hometown before coming back to Tech.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work here and give something back to Georgia Tech,” said Ivery. “I’m truly excited to be back, and happy that Tech has reached out to so many alumni to keep them involved in the program. I am looking forward to adding something to what is already a powerful program.”
Ivery is best known in Tech annals for setting an NCAA record, since broken, for rushing yards in a single game, 356 yards against Air Force on Nov. 11, 1978. He accomplished that feat on a frozen Falcon Stadium field in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 20 degree temperatures and 20 mile-per-hour winds as Tech defeated the Falcons, 42-21.
He went on to set a Tech season record with 1,562 yards that year, and finished his career with a school-record 3,517 yards, which now ranks second in Yellow Jacket history. Ivery scored 22 rushing touchdowns in his career, and still holds Tech marks for all-purpose yardage in a single game (367 vs. Air Force) and season (1,879 in 1978). The three-year letterwinner earned second-team all-America honors by the Associated Press and United Press International in 1978, and he finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy ballotting.
He was selected in the first round of the 1979 NFL draft, the 15th overall selection, by the Packers and played 10 seasons before retiring in 1988.
After his coaching stint at Thomson High School, Ivery returned to Tech in 1990 and received his bachelor’s degree in Management in 1992.
