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

georgytech

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
79
Location
Charleston,SC
Since about 1960 or so but my best memories are of Billy Lothridge, BillyMartin, Ted Davis & that bunch but there have been a lot of great memories over the years highs & lows. My favorite coaches are Pepper & CPJ but liked them all except for a couple.
My electric football game had yellow & red players so I got to play the Dawgs a lot. Beat them all the time.
Biggest disappointment was Lothridge not winning the Heisman he did way more on the field than Staubach but the eastern press was a big I fluency back then.
 

George P. Burdell

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
19
Location
Smyrna
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 freshman year in 1994 where we went 1-10 and didn't see a good season till my senior year. I'm still surprised I stayed a fan through all of that.
 

Vespidae

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,950
Location
Auburn, AL
My freshman year in 1994 where we went 1-10 and didn't see a good season till my senior year. I'm still surprised I stayed a fan through all of that.
I was talking to my nephew, an Alabama alum, about football once and he quipped, "I've never seen them lose." (Of course they lost, but usually that was at an away game or in a post-season game which he did not attend.)

Four years of attending games and he never experienced a loss. I cannot relate to that.
 

MidtownJacket

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
4,800
College sports fandom is an odd spectrum for me.

I loved my time at GT and always supported, will continue to support our athletic squads partially because the memories I made in the stands or at tailgates or bars but also because it is a part of the overall mission of the Institute.

That said, I can not put myself in the headspace of someone choosing their college based on sports (unless they were an athlete going there on a scholarship with a REAL shot at professional sports).
 

DvilleJacket

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,674
He sure did - In the fog
My dad was drunk as a skunk with my mom's mutt brother at that game! Dad had to pee from all the boozing after the game so my uncle dropped him off at Clermont lounge and drove off! 😂 He returned of course but wasn't to happy with the games outcome.
 

rfjeff9

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
401
I’m the antI-establishment CFB guy. Always pulling for the underdog. Hating on all my friends favorite teams, etc.

I came of age in the mid 80s, clearly recalling all the UGA love and bull****tery that went on 80-84 or so. Was old enough to start falling in love with the game itself because I played, but still not knowing anything else about the teams and players except my dad’s rage at Steve Bartkowski on Sundays, and Herschel and the Dawgs. I didn’t watch the games in the 80s much. Better stuff to do involving guns, 3-wheelers, and this new thing about girls that completely dominated my interest, you guys know the story. Yada yada. But nothing made my stomach churn as bad as seeing a fully grown man riding down a one stoplight town side street barking like a dog. As in yelling “woof woof woof” to anyone within earshot. I made it my mission about 1982 to forever be happy with a UGA loss, just to shut these fools up and say “Nyah Nyah” to my Georgia alumni relatives (that I didn’t like anyway). As the years wore on, these types of people became even more unbearable. So I was a de-facto Tech fan because I came to hate UGA to such a great degree. GT slowly became my preferred team because of the occasional wins over UGAg and the fact they were also located in Georgia, regardless of the complete disconnect between me and that school (at the time). Had nothing in common with GT really except UGA hate, but so did Auburn and Florida. Later I became interested in Engineering as a possible college major and profession?

In 1990 for some weird reason my dad and I started watching all the GT football games. Nothing to set it off after a few wins, but they were on a lot and we just decided to watch them all. Perhaps he saw in me a GT future e cause of my engineering interest and was pushing me there, IDK. i have a lot of memories of me and dad, but one thing I will alway have is us watching every last second of GT v UVA that year. He insisted that evening that of all the football he has ever watched, that was the best goal line defense he had ever seen. That game sealed the deal for me. As if it hadn’t been before 8 years prior.

I arrived summer of 1991 in Towers Hall. There was a 1990 National Football Championship poster laying on my dorm room desk that I think I still have somewhere.
 
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