Today we worry about online pirates stealing personal information and nefarious foreign governments hacking into our democracy. So what happened in September 1962 to Wally Butts, the athletic director at the University of Georgia, and Bear Bryant, the legendary football coach at the University of Alabama, seems quaint.
“Fumbled Call” book cover
Butts, who’d resigned under pressure as UGA’s football coach in 1960, was visiting an Atlanta public relations firm when he placed a call to Bryant at his Tuscaloosa campus. At the same time, an Atlanta insurance salesman named George Burnett telephoned a friend at the same PR firm.
