Do you remember when you became a Tech fan?

bobongo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
7,574
Born into it. My dad was born and raised in East Point. He grew up going to games, and I watched with him every week as a kid. I went to my first game in 99' when we beat UNC in OT. I've been to at least a game every year since. We had season tickets for several years at the beginning of the PJ era, but as I got older it became harder to get to more than 1-2 games a year. Anyway, I've stuck with the Jackets through it all, and will continue to do so. I will pass it onto my kids one day as well. It is frustrating and also rewarding being a jacket fan. Watching teams like 00, 08, 09, 14 make it worth the struggle.

As I remember it drizzled the whole game. Looked very, very bleak with UNC ahead by 3 inside our 5-yard line with about a minute on the clock. But a goal line stand, and some heroics by 'Lil Joe and Luke Manget pulled us through.
 

1BearJACKET

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
374
Location
Southern Crescent
It has to be either '70 or '71. All I remember is that Eddie McAshan was QB. Dad was Class of 1960 and we attended several home years in those years when I was in elementary school. I scored just high enough on SATs to get in as a legacy in '83 and quickly found out that I couldn't cut it academically. Pledging Phi Sigma Kappa and consuming lots of adult beverages did not help. I have never lost my love of Georgia Tech sports teams and hatred of UGA (sic.). There are other teams I cheer for when they aren't playing the Jackets though (mostly ACC teams and never UGA).
 

91Wreck

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
356
I become a Tech fan around 1977 or 1978. My father was a basketball coach and he shared an office with the football coach in the gym. As a kid I would go into his office and look at a GT football calendar. I remember asking him "why did Georgia used to be called Georgia Tech"? He explained to me that they were two different schools. He went back into the gym and I grabbed a chair so that I could reach the calendar and take it off the wall. I remember reading about "wrong way Riegels" and seeing pictures of the Ramblin Wreck in that calendar.

I was hooked. I was a GT fan and never looked back. I foolishly cheered for the mutts to win the NC in 1980, but I always wanted Tech to beat them. By my high school years I hated UGA. My junior and senior years Gary Lee and the boys made me proud. It sure was sweet because I was probably the only Tech fan in my school.

I graduated from Tech in 1991, so I got to see some of the most exciting games in our program's history. My eyes saw the glory of the stomping of the dawgs in 1989. I was there for the Clemson game in 1990. I remember how loud we all screamed on that 4th down stop. I remember running outside onto Techwood drive after Sisson's kick against UVA and seeing the bonfire in the middle of the road. I was at the Citrus Bowl on January 1st of 1991.

After college I married a cheerleader from Georgia State and turned her into a Tech fan. We raised our children to be Tech fans. Our daughter just graduated with a EE degree and she was a cheerleader for GT for the last four years. I am a proud GT fan and will be to the day I die!

And this is a great thread. I have really enjoyed reading stories about all of you. It is nice to know that there are fans just as passionate as I am. We may not always agree about the direction of the program, but we are all in agreement as to how much we love Georgia Tech!
 
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