Georgia Tech vs Georgia - An Old Fashioned Rivalry

For the first time, in quite a while, both Georgia Tech and Georgia entered this year's rivalry game ranked in the AP Top 25. Sadly, the result was the same as it has been for the past 3 years (and 10 of last 11). Georgia simply had too many weapons for Tech to stop. Combine that with the fact that Tech's offense was unable to consistently control the ball, and it all adds up to a 31 - 17 victory for Georgia.

Instead of relying on their triple option running game, Tech attempted to surprise Georgia with gadget plays (reverses) and increasing their number (and variety) of passing plays. The strategy backfired, and it seemed as though every time Tech tried something different (like passing) the result came back to bite them (as in interceptions).

The entire game could be summed up in the sequence when Georgia lined up for a 41 yd field goal towards the end of the first half. Although Blair Walsh shanked the kick wide left, the side referee came running in to indicate that Tech called a time out prior to the snap (a mostly ineffective strategy to 'ice' the kicker by making him more nervous as he thinks about the kick during the timeout). In this case, it gave Walsh the chance to relax and correct his previous shank. Naturally, after the time out, Walsh casually split the uprights for 3 points.

I hate this game - until next year.

To Hell With Georgia! again

Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia are two NCAA Division 1 schools from the state of Georgia, and the similarities pretty much stop there.

The University of Georgia was founded in 1785 by decree of the Georgia General Assembly, with its first classes taking place in 1801, and its first class graduating in 1804.

Almost immediately after the Civil War, the Georgia General Assembly decided that a new technological school should be founded to help modernize the South. The school would be the MIT of the South. Then UGA president Patrick Mell firmly believed that the new school should be located by Georgia's main campus in Athens and worked tirelessly to convince the Assembly. Despite his best efforts, The Georgia Institute of Technology was established near the northern city limits of Atlanta in 1885.

Separated by the 70 miles between Atlanta and Athens Georgia, and founded 100 years apart, The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and the University of Georgia (UGA) have been rivals since 1893 in more than just football. The animosity that these two schools have for each other, or at least UGA had for Georgia Tech, started when Tech was not established in Athens.

Over the past 100+ years, the two schools have been competing for everything in the state of Georgia. This include not only potential students, scholarship athletes and fans, but also government grants and academic recognition (Georgia Tech is an engineering research university while UGA is a liberal arts research university). However, it is on the gridiron that this rivalry excels.

Rumor has it that during that first game, Georgia Tech beat Georgia the old fashioned way - we cheated.

The first football game between The Georgia School of Technology (Tech's original name) and the University of Georgia took place in Athens on November 4, 1893. The Georgia Tech Blacksmiths (as they were known) traveled 70 miles by train and won by a score of 28 - 6.

But it was who scored those 4 touchdowns that sparked the rivalry.

All of Tech's points were scored by Leonard Wood, a 33 year old US Army Physician, and local Atlanta resident, who after Tech's 0- 3 season in 1892, volunteered to be player-coach. The controversy surrounds the fact that Wood was only registered as a Georgia Tech student a few days before the game, thus making him eligible to play. This registrative technicality serioiusly upset the Georgia fans since during and after the game they hurled rocks and debris at the Tech players, and even threatened a few with knives.

The next day an article appeared in the Atlanta Journal, written by an understandably irate Athens sports writer, who mocked Tech's football team for being nothing more than a collection of Atlanta residents and an army physician, with a few students thrown in for legitimacy;

and a rivalry was born.

After that initial win, Tech's football program would perform very poorly and from 1892 - 1903 would post a record of 8 - 32 - 5. As a result, the school decided that they needed to hire a professional coach, so they turned to another rival school who happened to have crushed Tech 73 - 0 in their first game of the 1903 season. That school was Clemson University, and the coach was John Heisman.

To lure him away from Clemson, Georgia Tech offered Heisman $2,250 and 30% of the attendance fees to be Georgia Tech's football (and baseball) coach. Heisman's arrival marked a turning point in Tech's football program. He immediately posted an 8-1-1 record in his first year, the start of an era in which Tech's football teams would be known as the Golden Tornado.

From 1904 to 1908 Heisman would lead Tech on a 5 year win streak over rival Georgia. By 1908 however, complaints by Georgia alumni led to an investigation of Tech's recruiting tactics by the SIAA (Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association). The accusations ended up being either unfounded, or unproven, leading the SIAA to rule in favor of Tech.

Over the course of his 16 seasons at Georgia Tech, John Heisman led the now Golden Tornado to 104 wins, three undefeated seasons, a 32 game winning streak and their first National Title in 1917.

Additionally, Heisman also led Tech to the highest scoring football game ever played with a 222 - 0 win over a totally outmanned Cumberland State in 1916. Some say this was in retaliation for a 22 - 0 loss in baseball (which Heisman also coached) during the spring of 1916, but it's too bad it wasn't against Georgia!

NOTE: after retiring from coaching football in 1927, Heisman became Director of the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan in 1935. After his death in 1936, the club's trophy for the best collegiate football player was renamed the Heisman Trophy.

By 1917, tensions were high, not only in Georgia, but around the world, and with the onset of WWI. As a result, UGA had to disband its football program due to the lack of able bodies since most male students were recruited for the war. Atlanta, however, was utilized by the Army as a military training ground at the time, so Tech did not lose it's male students and was able to continue its football program throughout the war.

When UGA was able to revive its football program for the 1919 season, they proudly proclaimed "UGA in Argonne" and "TECH in Atlanta" on parade floats. Naturally this did not sit well with Tech, who immediately severed all athletic ties with UGA. This included cancelling several Georgia home games at Atlanta's Grant Field (Tech allowed UGA to use Grant Field as their home field).

The rivalry would not resume until 1925, by mutual agreement.

In December of 1932, 13 schools in the Southeastern United States, left their respective conferences to form the SEC. Georgia and Georgia Tech would be 2 of those original 13 members. UGA and 9 other of the original member schools still compete in the SEC.

Georgia Tech however, would leave the SEC in 1964 after coach Bobby Dodd began a feud with Alabama's Bear Bryant (the result of a cheap shot by an Alabama player that ended the career of a Tech player, and Bryant's refusal to discipline the athlete). There were also concerns over scholarship allocations and questionable recruiting tactics by several of the member schools. Universities would award scholarships to more athletes than they could carry on their roster, but not cut them until well after signing day effectively preventing them from findin gnew schools to play for.

Dodd's career ar Georgia Tech included 165 wins, a 31 game winning streak, 2 SEC Titles, and another National Title for Tech in 1952. Dodd also understood the importance of the rivalry with Georgia and would compile a 12 - 9 record during his career. This included leading the Yellow Jackets to 8 consecutive victories (1946 - 1954) and outscore Georgia 176 - 39 in those games. This remains the longest streak of either team in the rivalry.

Several years after leaving the SEC Georgia Tech would attempt to re-enter the conference. Their application was rejected in large part due to the intense opposition of Georgia.

This left Tech with no league to compete in, so they helped to charter the Metro Conference (known today as Conference USA), for all its intercollegiate sports except football. Similar to Notre Dame, and Penn State, Tech would compete in football as an independent for the next 15 years. This however, led to trouble recruiting top players since Tech' sschedule did not include a competitive conference schedule.

Struggling to return to national prominence, Tech's coach Pepper Rodgers joins the ACC in 1978, the conference in which it still completes today.

Currently, Georgia leads the series 62 - 39 - 5

It's one thing to have a rivalry with another school, but it's something else to include that rivalry in your school's fight song.

Georgia Tech's Ramblin Wreck song contains the line "To Hell with Georgia", which is the one line that the entire student bosy whouts at the top of their lungs. Another Tech song, "Up With the White and Gold" starts with the line "Up with hte White and Gold" and is immediately followed by the lyrics "Down with the Red and Black" and later on "Drop the Battle Axe on Georgia's Head".

The Georgia fight song, "Glory Glory", which has technically remained unchanged since first being published in 1909, officially ends with G-E-O-R-G-I-A. The student body however, takes great pride in changing the closing lyrics to "and to Hell with Georgia Tech!"