George Robert Woodruff (March 14, 1916 – November 1, 2001) was an American college football player, coach, and sports administrator. Woodruff was a native of Georgia and an alumnus of the University of Tennessee, where he played college football. He was best known as the head coach of the Baylor University and University of Florida football teams, and later, as the athletic director at the University of Tennessee. Early life and education Woodruff was born in Athens, Georgia, in 1916, and attended high school in Savannah, Georgia. After high school, he enrolled at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he played tackle for the Tennessee Volunteers football team under head coach Robert Neyland. Woodruff graduated from Tennessee in 1939. Coaching career Tennessee, Army and Georgia Tech assistant coach Woodruff stayed in Knoxville after he graduated from the University of Tennessee, working as an assistant coach under Neyland during the 1939, 1940 and 1941 football seasons. During World War II, he was an officer in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and served as an assistant football coach under Earl Blaik at West Point in 1944 and 1945. He was discharged from the Army as a major in 1946, and accepted an assistant coaching position under Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech. The 1939 and 1940 Volunteers teams had ranked among the top five in the final Associated Press (AP) football poll; the AP declared the Cadets national champions in 1944 and 1945. Woodruff gained the experience of being a part of three great college coaching staffs. Baylor Bears head coach Woodruff became the head football coach at Baylor University in Waco, Texas in 1947. He coached the Baylor Bears football team for three seasons from 1947 through 1949, compiling a 19–10–2 record. His 1948 Bears posted a 6–3–2 record and finished with a 20–7 win over Wake Forest in the Dixie Bowl. Woodruff coached his 1949 Bears to a final AP Poll top-20 ranking and an 8–2 record, but the Bears did not receive a bowl bid. In early December 1949, Woodruff became embroiled in a dispute with the Baylor athletic director, Ralph Wolf, which became public when both Woodruff and Wolf resigned their positions within twenty-four hours on December 9 and 10. Although the subject of their dispute was never publicly disclosed, the university announced that Woodruff had withdrawn his resignation and would keep his position on December 14, but