FanPost

Georgia Tech - Best student section in the ACC?

Do the Georgia Tech students deserve praise for being among the rowdiest, loudest, proudest, most well-dressed, and smartest football fans in any stadium in Atlantic Coast Country?

From Heather Dinich of ESPN on the matter:

Here’s a completely unscientific ranking of the five best student sections in the ACC, based on a combination of attendance, fun, and good old fashioned decibel level:

...

4. Georgia Tech: They’re at their best on a Thursday night, and they’re no doubt the heart and soul of Bobby Dodd Stadium. They’re always there for the entrance of the Ramblin’ Wreck, and decked out in their white and gold. Oh, and they’re pretty smart, too, those engineers. They’ve got a catchy fight song, and they’re always ready to answer, "What’s the good word?"

In the midst of a nation-wide downturn in college football student attendance Georgia Tech's students garner mixed reviews. From inside our own fan base, you'll hear the student body lambasted for being too uninterested in the Yellow Jackets football game day experience - an experience that many see as a cornerstone of the Georgia Tech undergraduate experience. 'After all,' as older alumni will often say, 'big time Southern football game days are why you go to Georgia Tech instead of MIT or CalTech.' What do they say earns the students a bad name? The list of grievances is long. They show up too late (long after the national anthem...sometimes after kickoff.) They don't stay long enough (winning by a ton? losing by a ton at all?) They don't know the songs, "I'm a Ramblin Reck from Georgia Tech and ba-da ba-da ba-nunh...." They wear the wrong colors (black, navy, carolina blue shirts.) Or they don't show up at all for games that they either think aren't worthy of their attention or that they do not think Tech will win (Elon, georgie.)

All this from our own fans nearly weekly, but today the outside world (ESPN taken as a fair representation of outside perception) has recognized something that is still true of a core group of today's young Ramblin Wrecks. The Georgia Tech students who do attend the football games have an energy that is downright infectious. I'll go a step further and say on record that this group of students actively creates new lifelong fans.

Just go down to the North endzone and experience it from within. The proper Southern attire all around. Gold blazers. Crisp white oxford shirts. Bow ties. Sun dresses. Hats and sunglasses. The jumping. The singing. The chanting. The raucous yelling (at officials, at touchdowns, at each other sometimes.) I remember my first football game on The Flats and how this youthful, thunderous group of my white-and-gold clad peers infected me with Yellow Jacket fever. They cheered not because the football team was winning or losing. They cheered, because regardless who anyone else in the stadium or the world was...THEY were the Tech fans! Come touchdown or turnover they were bright and loud because passion begot passion. Georgia Tech football took hold of me and has not let me go since. I have never missed a home football game since that day, and that's a streak that will see its tenth season this Fall. I've seen the Jackets play with my own two eyes through rain, wind, extreme heat, extreme cold, blowout wins, blowout losses, upsets, downturns...everything. I've had sunburns, windburns, headaches, the flu, muscle cramps, nausea, heat exhaustion, academic all-nighter exhaustion and more, but I was there. I was in MY white and gold. I was loud and proud for MY school. And I'm glad ESPN has recognized this final and most important point - I WAS NEVER ALONE!

Together we can all say 'Go Jackets!'

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