HTS 2018: Clean, Old Fashioned Hate

Welcome to From the Rumble Seat’s weekly historical matchup lecture. Throughout the season, each unit in this class will examine the head-to-head matchups of our opponents in the 2018 season. This week we venture to the land of three column arches to visit our bright in-state brethren.

The School in Athens...um...Dwags?

Opponent Background:

• Conference: Southeastern Conference (1933 - present)
• Location: Athens, Georgia
• All-time Record: 808–420–54 (.651)
• Home Stadium: Sanford Stadium (Capacity: 92,746)
• National Championships: 2 — 1942, 1980
• College Football Playoff Appearances: 1 — Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
• New Year’s Six Bowl Games: 22 — (Orange: 3 - 1941, 1948, 1959 Cotton: 3 - 1966, 1975, 1983 Rose: 2 - 1942, 2017 Peach: 5 - 1973, 1989, 1995, 1998, 2006 Sugar: 9 - 1946, 1968, 1976 1980, 1981, 1982, 2002, 2005, 2007)
• Conference Championships: 15 — (SIAA: 1896, 1920 SEC: 1942, 1946, 1948, 1959, 1966, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 2002, 2005, 2017)
• Division Championships: 7 — (2002, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2018)
• 2017 Season Record: 13 - 2 (7 - 1 SEC)

Past Results:

• Team Head-to-Head Record: 41-66-5 (.388)
• Recent Meetings:
  2014 - 30-24 Georgia Tech (Athens, GA)
  2015 - 13-7 the school in Athens (Atlanta, GA)
  2016 - 28-27 Georgia Tech (Athens, GA)
  2017 - 38-7 the school in Athens (Atlanta, GA)
• Coach Head-to-Head Record: 1-1-0 (.500)
• Tech record against the school out east in this week’s venue: 18-31-1 (.390)

For a Lengthy Dose of Hate Click Here or Keep Reading:

From some guy I met on MARTA on the way to the airport the other day, more or less:

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT FOR THE DAWGS THEY HAVE BEEN PLAYING A LONG LONG TIME I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG THAT’S NOT IMPORTANT BUT PROBABLY SINCE LIKE THE EIGHTEEN HUNDREDS OR SOMETHING FROM BUTTS TO DOOLEY TO RICHT TO SMART WE HAVE MANY GOOD COACHES AND WE HAVE HAD HERSCHEL AND HE WAS GOOD AND WON THE HEISMAN AND WOW I MEAN THAT CHAMPIONSHIP IN 1980 WAS AMAZING WE GO TO MANY MANY BOWL GAMES AND WIN MANY MANY GAMES OUR MOST IMPORTANT RIVALS ARE THE FLORIDA JEAN SHORTS GUYS AND THE AUBURN COW COLLEGE AND THE TENNESSEE HILL PEOPLE WE DON’T EVEN EVER THINK ABOUT NORTH AVENUE TRADE SCHOOL BECAUSE THEY ARE IRRELEVANT HAVE NO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AND RUN A HIGH SCHOOL OFFENSE AND THEIR DEGREES TEACH NONSENSE SUBJECTS LIKE MATH AND SCIENCE AH NUMBERS THE LETTERS OF MATH SPURRIERRRRRRRR THE HEDGES ARE BEAUTIFUL AND THE STADIUM IS GRAND AND THE GOVERNMENT DISCRIMINATES AGAINST US WITH THE GURLEY LAW OUR TEAM WILL BEAT THE OTHER TEAM NO MATTER WHAT AND THE ARCH HAS SO MANY COLUMNS IT HAS THE MOST COLUMNS WOO AND THE CHAPEL BELL DEFINITELY ISN’T ANNOYING WE ARE ATLANTA’S COLLEGE SPORTS TEAM AND ALWAYS HAVE AND ALWAYS WILL BE THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO DOWNTOWN AND THE CULTURE OF THE CLASSIC CITY IS WONDERFUL WE ARE THE OLDEST PUBLIC UNIVERSITY AND WE HAVE HAD A CONSTANT UNDERDOG STORY THE WHOLE TIME WE GOT TO PLAY IN THE ROSE BOWL AND THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP LAST YEAR AND WE WILL DO THE SAME THIS YEAR I THINK THAT IS ALL OF OUR HISTORY PRAISE STAFFORD AND MURRAY AND CHUBB AND FROMM AND WALKER AGAIN OUR PLAYERS NEVER GET ARRESTED AND DEFINITELY ALL KNOW HOW TO READ WOOOOOOOOOO GO DAWGS

That was a trip. Instead, I’ll just quote myself a couple times and call it a day:

• “The team of derivative hacks that don’t know the first things about actual derivatives.”
• “The school in Athens, chartered in 1785, first accepted students in 1801, with graduation first happening in 1804. The first building was complete in 1805. I leave you with one question: how the heck did that work? Did they sit under a tree in some field up there in Athens? On second thought, that wouldn’t be too surprising.”
• “The propaganda-like histories of each stadium, Sanford and Keenan, maintain the splendor of their respective bush, even though the obvious answer is that they both stole the idea from the Rose Bowl. Keenan Memorial, which dates from 1927, preceded the opening of Sanford in Athens, its architectural derivative.”
• “Annie Lisle was first used by Cornell. Since then, “literal legions of schools [have used] “Annie Lisle” as their alma mater, from Syracuse to Alabama, and Indiana to that resort in Dirty Dancing,” Chapel Hill is joined by the school in Athens in having appropriated Annie Lisle. Because of course they are.”
• “You know why this is here. They chased us out of town literally armed to the teeth with pitchforks and torches the first time we visited. That’t not hospitality. The Athenians called us yellow-bellied cowards for operating the most advanced and prestigious military institution in the southeast during the heights of the Great War. Somehow, Tech is demeaned as both a trade school and a bastion of nerds, often in the same breath. The administration stole our commerce school as a direct attack on Tech, both to cripple it financially and to strip it of a whole four classes of athletes. In Tech’s first breaths, the Athenians tried to use the state government as a weapon. They still do. It’s a potpourri of vile shenanigans. Don’t even start on the unoriginality of their mascot, stadium, hedges, logo, colors, band, and fight song.”
• “Conveniently, the school in Athens had ripped off Notre Dame’s offense, already possessing Yale’s stadium design and mascot, marching band uniforms from the British, a fight song from the Union Army, hedges from literally everywhere, and, later on, a logo sourced from a bunch of Wisconsinite meatpackers. It makes sense their schemes weren’t any more original than putting both peanut butter and jelly on a sandwich.”

As far as Tech football history goes, From the Rumble Seat has been taking a biweekly look at football history since the beginning of the summer over at Rearview Mirror. And it hasn’t changed much since last week. The short version is that Tech football began ignominiously with a middling season in 1892. A game up in Athens in 1893, which Tech won, set the stage for one of the fiercest rivalries in the sport and also is one of the mythic origins of the Ramblin’ Wreck nickname, as well as how Tech got its colors. Tech was pitiful, to put it nicely, for quite some time until one man, Frank Turner, started an initiative to hire a bonafide legend as a football coach. That resulted in John Heisman. Heisman, innovator and champion, saw much success on the Flats until he dramatically left town as part of his divorce. The old man was replaced by William Alexander, who was known for his team’s strong academics and his own 1928 national championship. Coach Alex was, in turn, replaced by his own protege Bobby Dodd. By the end of Dodd’s tenure, Tech had amassed three national championships, twelve conference championships, including five in the Southeastern Conference, which just mean more, and had decided to go independent to make a stand not only for its football prominence, but its foundational academic principles as well. Dodd and Tech would not sacrifice student-athlete education and well-being. The independent years were lean for Tech and did not result in the dream of a “Notre Dame of the South” status. Eventually, Tech joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in the beginning of the 1980s. By the end of the decade, coach Bobby Ross brought the Jackets seemingly from nowhere to win a national championship, Tech’s fourth. Since then, the Jackets have seen average-to-great years, the most recent excellent year being 2014, when Tech was a few plays from the inaugural College Football Playoff. The Jackets have an all-time record of 730-495-43.

Here’s some mutual history between the two schools:

• Trying to shut it down before it opened, and such.
• We beat them, so they threw rocks at us, and such.
• That time they called us all spineless cowards, and such.
• Dream and Wonder? More like futz and blunder, and such.
• The Board of Regents Debacle, Part I - Trustees, and such.
• The Board of Regents Debacle, Part II - Commerce, and such.

This brings us to 1932. From there, there were many more years of streaks and shenanigans, of good times, as well as bad. The thing is, though, that there’s almost too much to talk about. Anything I say here, as a relatively new Tech fan, older than the past few years is going to miss something important to someone. We all know the kick and the pick, and Qua Searcy’s leap. But let us know down below: what do you think the most iconic moments of this rivalry are?

The Jackets took their fourth straight win last week, defeating the Virginia Cavaliers in overtime. Toe meets leather this week against the school in Athens (41-66-5 all time) Saturday at 12:00 pm. The game will be aired on the SEC Network, a wonderful sporting news station whose purpose it to be homers for the home team this weekend. A better option might be tuning into the voice of the Yellow Jackets, Andy Demetra, analyst Sean Bedford, and the illustrious Wiley Ballard on the radio at the usual suspects, 680 AM / 93.7 FM and the Georgia Tech IMG Football Radio Network.

With the appearance of the historical matchup preview, that means it’s Friday at 10:00 AM. Tune in early tomorrow for How to Watch continuing through the gameday thread and the postgame recap. Less than 36 hours until toe meets leather! As always, go Jackets!