Another random question. When did you start rooting for Tech?

[Ramble1885]

My dad is class of '89 (my grandpa did not attend college but rooted for tech as well) and my family has had season tickets since 2000. I along with my twin brother was born in 2006. At first I rooted for Tech because I was taught to do so. I did not know any better. I started going to FB and MBB games around when I was two so, 2008. It was those late 00's teams when Paul Johnson had just arrived that made me truly fall in love with Tech. Everything seems so innocent as a child, and so seeing all the fun, wacky, unique sports traditions that Tech has made me excited, and then you add the fact that the team was great too, and I've been a diehard fan since. What I want to know is, since most of you guys are older than me and probably have some interesting stories to tell, how did you start rooting for Tech? It could be like me, being born into a grad's family. GT could be your alma mater. You could have some other reason that you could share. I know this is random but us Tech fans might as well chat about memories as we near the start of another fall on the flats.

 

[TooTall]

I have a school picture of me in a GT National Champs tshirt in the early 90's. Went and saw Matt Harpring and Co beat North Texas on NYE one year. Never went to the "red" side and stayed true. Then when my sister went to Tech in 1998, I was entering high school. Went to family day, including the f$u home loss in 99, every year she was there. Tech beating the mutts 3 years in a row is what cemented my allegiance and I've never looked back.

 

[GT_05]

UVA game in 1998.

I grew up a mutt fan because everyone in my family are mutt fans. I grew irritated with UGA football in the mid 90s and I almost stopped watching college ball altogether. I happened to sit down during the fourth quarter of the GT vs UVA game and saw GT battle back from 3 TDs down. So exciting! Anyway, GT became my team and a few years later I enrolled at GT, got out, and the rest is history. Now, we are stuck together for better or worse.

 

[GTLorenzo]

Mid 1970s. Dad graduated in 1954. I was in 1992. Started going to games when I was a little kid and we would travel to a lot of road games back then, Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Clemson, GA. Good times back then, not in how we played, but in the teams we played. Growing up Eddie Lee Ivery was my guy. Loved watching him run the ball. Got one of his tear away jerseys from a team manager in 1978 and still have it.

 

[JoJaTeck]

I grew up about a block away from Gary Lee's family in Albany - Went to several games since my Dad and his worked together and would sometimes get tickets they couldn't use. Albany is huge Dwag country and couldn't stand the constant fawning over cesspool. Those 2 wins in the mid 80s was just awesome to see those losers watch number 33 ruin their season.

 

[superjacket21]

Georgia Tech played West Virginia in the 1997 Carquest bowl, and a 7 month old me was in attendance. So pretty much ever then.

 

[bobongo]

December 31, 1965 - watched the Gator Bowl win over Texas Tech on a "portable" black and white RCA as an 11-year-old kid and have been a Tech fan ever since.

 

[Ramble1885]

I grew up about a block away from Gary Lee's family in Albany - Went to several games since my Dad and his worked together and would sometimes get tickets they couldn't use. Albany is huge Dwag country and couldn't stand the constant fawning over cesspool. Those 2 wins in the mid 80s was just awesome to see those losers watch number 33 ruin their season.

he had that 95 yd return in 85 right?

 

[JoJaTeck]

he had that 95 yd return in 85 right?

He sure did - In the fog

 

[BuckeyeJacket]

I moved to Atlanta in the 3rd grade from Ohio where I was a OSU and Cincy fan.

After seeing what UGA fans were like, rooting for GT was an easy decision.

 

[yeti92]

I have a school picture of me in a GT National Champs tshirt in the early 90's. Went and saw Matt Harpring and Co beat North Texas on NYE one year. Never went to the "red" side and stayed true. Then when my sister went to Tech in 1998, I was entering high school. Went to family day, including the f$u home loss in 99, every year she was there. Tech beating the mutts 3 years in a row is what cemented my allegiance and I've never looked back.

I have Citrus Bowl shirt from 1990 laying around here somewhere...

 

[BuzzDraft]

Wow, lots of young Yellow Jackets barely out of larvae stage here!

Summer of 1977.

My senior year of high school was spent at a really small (40 students at peak) American prep school in the Austrian Alps and I took my SAT tests at the airbase in Munich since that was the closest place, and nailed them in the top 1% without any prep at all (maybe that's the secret). Tech wasn't on my short list at the time so my transcripts went out to several good engineering schools, Purdue, Illinois, even UCLA, etc. The school's headmaster really pushed for me to go to Lehigh or Holy Cross. I only heard of Georgia Tech from the old football scoreboard shows with Bill Flemming, I liked how it rolled off the tongue. But my Mom and Dad knew of Tech and Bobby Dodd from the glory days in the 50s - Tech was a big deal in northern Ohio. After graduating I flew back "home" to Dhahran Saudi Arabia and worked as a draftsman that summer. We took our first stateside trip since moving over there in 75 from Ohio and stayed with my older siblings in Orlando for a couple weeks. My Mom knew Tech was one of the best engineering schools in the country and we drove up to show my older brother the campus. He was working as a bartender at Disney and taking classes at FTU ("Florida Tech", the precursor to Central Florida!) so Mom wanted him to seriously upgrade his education, but it was me who fell in love with the place. I picked up my first Tech shirt from the old bookstore and we flew back "home" for the rest of the summer. I enrolled from there. That's when I began rooting like a maniac for Tech - and I didn't even know about Clean Old Fashioned Hate so "To HELL With georgia!" was confusing in our fight song - I thought it was referring to the rest of the state! I wore my shirt everywhere in Saudi and one day at work one of the older guys at a construction site saw my shirt and sang "Ramblin' Wreck"... in freaking Saudi Arabia! I signed up for a room in McDaniel dorm (TECHWOOD!) and made life long friends who I still get together with every time we can for extravagant opponent-themed tailgating on campus. I tried retiring twice, but was bored and didn't want to waste my great Electrical Engineering With Honors degree from THE Tech!

And now you know... the REST of the story.

 

[yeti92]

Wow, lots of young Yellow Jackets barely out of larvae stage here!

Summer of 1977.

My senior year of high school was spent at a really small (40 students at peak) American prep school in the Austrian Alps and I took my SAT tests at the airbase in Munich since that was the closest place, and nailed them in the top 1% without any prep at all (maybe that's the secret). Tech wasn't on my short list at the time so my transcripts went out to several good engineering schools, Purdue, Illinois, even UCLA, etc. The school's headmaster really pushed for me to go to Lehigh or Holy Cross. I only heard of Georgia Tech from the old football scoreboard shows with Bill Flemming, I liked how it rolled off the tongue. But my Mom and Dad knew of Tech and Bobby Dodd from the glory days in the 50s - Tech was a big deal in northern Ohio. After graduating I flew back "home" to Dhahran Saudi Arabia and worked as a draftsman that summer. We took our first stateside trip since moving over there in 75 from Ohio and stayed with my older siblings in Orlando for a couple weeks. My Mom knew Tech was one of the best engineering schools in the country and we drove up to show my older brother the campus. He was working as a bartender at Disney and taking classes at FTU ("Florida Tech", the precursor to Central Florida!) so Mom wanted him to seriously upgrade his education, but it was me who fell in love with the place. I picked up my first Tech shirt from the old bookstore and we flew back "home" for the rest of the summer. I enrolled from there. That's when I began rooting like a maniac for Tech - and I didn't even know about Clean Old Fashioned Hate so "To HELL With georgia!" was confusing in our fight song - I thought it was referring to the rest of the state! I wore my shirt everywhere in Saudi and one day at work one of the older guys at a construction site saw my shirt and sang "Ramblin' Wreck"... in freaking Saudi Arabia! I signed up for a room in McDaniel dorm (TECHWOOD!) and made life long friends who I still get together with every time we can for extravagant opponent-themed tailgating on campus.

And now you know... the REST of the story.

The number of times I've run into people while traveling abroad that knew of Georgia Tech or had on some Tech gear is almost comical. I was in a fairly remote farm village in Peru during the 2004 Final Four and Championship games, and there was a rather large contingent of locals repping Tech gear.

 

[cthenrys]

Freshman year 1988. Was an ACC basketball fan growing up (played at Dean Smith's camp a couple of years) but GT wasn't my main team until I started there.

 

[Buzztheirazz]

Probably around 5th grade. So 87ish. Loved the gold helmets and my aunt went to Colorado so I was actually a fan of both in 1990.

I started mainly with ACC basketball as my grandfather went to to Duke. I also thought if you can’t even spell Dog correctly…you’re not going to be my team.

 

[alagold]

I have gone to Tech games for 60 yrs.I have not gone to see a game since the GC debacle his first yr.(and it continues)

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

My dad is class of '89 (my grandpa did not attend college but rooted for tech as well) and my family has had season tickets since 2000. I along with my twin brother was born in 2006. At first I rooted for Tech because I was taught to do so. I did not know any better. I started going to FB and MBB games around when I was two so, 2008. It was those late 00's teams when Paul Johnson had just arrived that made me truly fall in love with Tech. Everything seems so innocent as a child, and so seeing all the fun, wacky, unique sports traditions that Tech has made me excited, and then you add the fact that the team was great too, and I've been a diehard fan since. What I want to know is, since most of you guys are older than me and probably have some interesting stories to tell, how did you start rooting for Tech? It could be like me, being born into a grad's family. GT could be your alma mater. You could have some other reason that you could share. I know this is random but us Tech fans might as well chat about memories as we near the start of another fall on the flats.

My father used to play Ramblin Wreck and Up With the White and Gold at my house on the stereo even when my mother was pregnant with me. Thus, as the Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah: "Lo, while you were yet formed in your mother's womb, I knew you." Same thing with me.

 

[HurricaneJacket]

Halftime 2008 Clean Old Fashioned Hate. I had just been accepted to Tech and was at my Grandparents for Thanksgiving. Turned the game on after lunch on a tiny TV and watched the Yellow Jackets roar back before going down the road from Johnson city to Knoxville to watch Tennessee beat Kentucky to cap off the night.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

December 31, 1965 - watched the Gator Bowl win over Texas Tech on a "portable" black and white RCA as an 11-year-old kid and have been a Tech fan ever since.

Donny Anderson the great Texas Tech running back won the Heisman but it was Lenny Snow who ran wild in that game.

 

[Heisman's Ghost]

UVA game in 1998.

I grew up a mutt fan because everyone in my family are mutt fans. I grew irritated with UGA football in the mid 90s and I almost stopped watching college ball altogether. I happened to sit down during the fourth quarter of the GT vs UVA game and saw GT battle back from 3 TDs down. So exciting! Anyway, GT became my team and a few years later I enrolled at GT, got out, and the rest is history. Now, we are stuck together for better or worse.

"I grew irritated with UGA football in the mid 90s..." Understandable as those were the days of losing to the hated Gators and the insufferable Steve Spurrier year after year. Among other zingers, when asked about Florida having more talent than Georgia, he said: " I don't know about that, Georgia gets all this talent every year. I don't know what happens to them."