How did you become a TECH fan?

Jim Prather

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,038
Let me preface this by saying that I am the only Tech fan in a family full of rabid U[sic]GA fans. My father took me to my first two college football games when I was 7 -- one Tech game and one U[sic]GA. I still remember, nearly 40 years later, how much I liked the Tech fans that day. They were so friendly and nice. The next month, at the game in Athens, the fans were rude, obnoxious, and reeked of beer. I made a conscious decision right there that I wanted to be like the nice Tech fans and not like the rude Bulldog fans. I've been a diehard Tech fan ever since.
 

Lawyer mark

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
378
Location
Marietta
My dad (elon grad) took me to a tech game in 1984 and we got season tickets after that. Went to all home games for years and usually to clemson for away games. At citrus bowl to see us spank Nebraska! Went to uga, as I don't like math and like chasing less intelligent beautiful women.. Usually wore tech hat on campus! Tech fan since about 8. Next year will be my sons first game and will likely get season tickets if he enjoys himself.
 

GTMom

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
511
I was born in Atlanta a mile from campus and grew up here so have always been a Tech fan, especially when my first born son decided he wanted to go to Tech and that's the only college he ever considered. But when he got in and and gave me football season tix for a Mother's Day gift is when I became a fanatic! Now my younger son will be at Tech in the fall with my first born who is still there but now a doctoral student, GRA, and a TA. I'm such a die-hard fan, the rest of my family thinks I'm crazy, but I don't care. I love the Jackets! Season tix are my only request for Mother's Day every year. [emoji38]Go Jackets! and THWG!!
 

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,709
This is a great thread. To state the obvious, Tech fans are unique because in this state it means marching to the beat of a different drummer.

When I was young growing up in Atlanta my family would celebrate Thanksgiving with several Atlanta traditions. We would go to an ecumenical worship service at the Temple, go to the Shriners football game between the Tech freshmen and Georgia freshman, go home and eat turkey dinner, and then finish up by watching the lighting of the Great Tree on top of the Rich's bridge downtown. Even though my father and uncle were die hard Georgia fans I found myself attracted to the uniforms of the Tech players and the style of the Tech fans. Tech just seemed like the perfect start to the holiday season to me when I was young. Seeing Dodd's teams play as a child cemented my love. Tech beating Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl with Lenny Snow out performing Donnie Anderson (I think) sealed the deal. When Tech rattled off 9 straight wins the following year I was hooked for life.

Like all love stories there are many more twists and turns in the story but that is essentially how I got started.
 

GT Tennessee

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
239
My uncle is a Tech grad. He got out in 88 and he has a family full of women. While they like Tech, there is nothing like male bonding over college football. With a wife and two daughters, I was the only guy that would tag along with him. The first games I really remember where the years when Joe Ham and Godsey were at QB. He took me to my first game when Reggie Ball beat Auburn as a Freshman (we stormed the field together at this one and at VT 2009). Been a Tech fan ever since. Still to this day, we make sure we get to a couple of home games every year. Man great times with him at Bobby Dodd over the years. Some other great memories were FSU in 2008 VT in 2009 and Clemson in 2011. Hope to experience more great ones this year. Go Jackets!!!
 

91Wreck

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
356
I grew up in a small south Georgia town in the 70's and 80's. As a young kid I didn't even know Ga. Tech existed. All I ever heard anybody talk about was ugag.

My dad was the head basketball coach at our local high school. I remember being about 9-10 years old and walking into his office in the gym (which he shared with the head football coach) and seeing a football poster with this team with white and gold uniforms. I asked dad why ugag had changed its colors and added the "Tech" at the end. He told me that it was a completely different school. I started reading the poster about the 1929 Rose Bowl and "wrong way Roy Riegels". For some reason that poster stuck with me and GT immediately became my favorite team. It really is strange how the a small twist of fate shaped my love for GT.

In the early 80's dad took me to my first college basketball game where I watched freshman Mark Price and John Salley lead GT to a victory in the Cotton States Classic. I was hooked. From that moment on I said I was going to GT, even though I didn't know anything about engineering! I was the only Tech fan at my high school, so life was tough. But Tech came through in 84 and 85 against the mutts and my mutt friends quit kidding me about Tech.

I enrolled at Tech in the Fall of '88 and was at the Citrus Bowl when GT won the NC. I graduated in 91 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Other than my time at GT and a brief two year stint living in Richmond, VA, I have always lived in small Ga. towns surrounded by mutt fans. But I raised my children right. No taking the easy path and cheering for ugag like all of their friends. I always dressed them in GT apparel - especially my oldest daughter. I bought her multiple GT cheerleading uniforms when she was little girl. Now, she is a freshman at GT and IS a cheerleader. I almost cried at the first football game when I saw her cheering on the sideline!
 

LadyJacket

Georgia Tech Fan
Messages
10
Location
Marietta, GA
I grew up going to GT games with my parents beginning at age 3. My Father graduated in '42, my brother in '72 and myself in '81. My daughter just graduated on May 2nd to become a third generation GT graduate! I'm a huge GT sports fan and supporter and can't imagine any other path!
 

Boomergump

Helluva Engineer
Featured Member
Messages
3,280
Things started in an opposite order for me, and not neccessarily the wrong order, I might add. You see, I hated UGA long before I was a TECH man. I moved to ATL in 1978. Before that I lived in Jax, FL and my older brother attended UF, hence the UGA hatred. Soon after moving to ATL I was offered a baseball scholly to play for the white and gold. Not much matters before that. It was an empty existence.
 

OldJacketFan

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,348
Location
Nashville, TN
I grew up in a small south Georgia town in the 70's and 80's. As a young kid I didn't even know Ga. Tech existed. All I ever heard anybody talk about was ugag.

My dad was the head basketball coach at our local high school. I remember being about 9-10 years old and walking into his office in the gym (which he shared with the head football coach) and seeing a football poster with this team with white and gold uniforms. I asked dad why ugag had changed its colors and added the "Tech" at the end. He told me that it was a completely different school. I started reading the poster about the 1929 Rose Bowl and "wrong way Roy Riegels". For some reason that poster stuck with me and GT immediately became my favorite team. It really is strange how the a small twist of fate shaped my love for GT.

In the early 80's dad took me to my first college basketball game where I watched freshman Mark Price and John Salley lead GT to a victory in the Cotton States Classic. I was hooked. From that moment on I said I was going to GT, even though I didn't know anything about engineering! I was the only Tech fan at my high school, so life was tough. But Tech came through in 84 and 85 against the mutts and my mutt friends quit kidding me about Tech.

I enrolled at Tech in the Fall of '88 and was at the Citrus Bowl when GT won the NC. I graduated in 91 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Other than my time at GT and a brief two year stint living in Richmond, VA, I have always lived in small Ga. towns surrounded by mutt fans. But I raised my children right. No taking the easy path and cheering for ugag like all of their friends. I always dressed them in GT apparel - especially my oldest daughter. I bought her multiple GT cheerleading uniforms when she was little girl. Now, she is a freshman at GT and IS a cheerleader. I almost cried at the first football game when I saw her cheering on the sideline!

Uh huh protecting the manhood Hmmmmmm? Hell I'd cried like a baby had she been mine!!!!:D
 

OldJacketFan

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,348
Location
Nashville, TN
I relayed my upbringing as a Tech fan once before here, right after Eric got the site up on running so I won't bore everybody with a retelling. Suffice to say a Tech fan of 50 plus years and I plan on being one for the next 50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO JACKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STING 'EM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

jwsavhGT

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
Messages
4,531
Location
Savannah,GA
I relayed my upbringing as a Tech fan once before here, right after Eric got the site up on running so I won't bore everybody with a retelling. Suffice to say a Tech fan of 50 plus years and I plan on being one for the next 50!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO JACKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STING 'EM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please share for those who missed your previous posting.
 

GTpdm

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,965
Location
Atlanta GA
I grew up in central Illinois but in 1978 my family moved, following my dad's manufacturing job when the company relocated to northeast Georgia. I went through junior high and high school hearing nothing but bulldog-worship. Every Monday in fall, over the school intercom, the principal would lead the whole school in a chorus of, "how 'bout them dawgs!" ( I shudder at the memory of it.) The only college teams you'd hear about were uGA (90%), and Clemson (10%), so I picked Clemson to root for; no way I was cheering for the bulldogs. Where I live, it was as if no other schools even existed—well, except maybe in 1980 when the dwags played Notre Dame for the national championship. The months of grinning, gap-toothed hick-frenzy after that game were nauseating, and it tempered my hatred (in the metallurgical sense) for all things dwaggish.

It was around that time—as I started into my junior year in high school and realized my calling was "Science!"—that I heard about a small engineering school in downtown Atlanta—I had actually been in the state over three years before I even heard of Georgia Tech! (That's the way it goes, in rural north Georgia…) So just like some others who have posted, for me COFH came first, and that led me to Tech, rather than it being the other way around.

The really cool post-script to all this is that after I made my decision to attend Tech, my mom mentioned that my granddad—who had died a decade before I was born—had been a huge Tech fan back in Illinois, in the 30s and 40s. He would come home from a night of carousing singing the "Ramblin Wreck" and waking the neighbors. Maybe it was more about it being a good Irish drinking song than about Georgia Tech itself, but I'd like to think, in hindsight, that maybe Tech fandom actually was something in my blood...
 

JazzyD95

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
727
Location
The ATL
with me currently attending Tech, that makes me a third generation legacy. Grandfather graduated in 64, my dad and uncle graduated in 90, and my mom graduated 91.
I went to my first Tech football game on my dads shoulders when I was 6 months old. Needless to say I've been completely and utterly brainwashed to hate all things red and black.
When it came time for me to apply to College it wasn't even a choice. That being said, I grew up in a very low income area of the state with a horrible school system, and it was a struggle to get in. I made it somehow though, and became the first person in 5 years to attend Tech from my high school.
We'll see if I ever actually graduate though haha
 

OldJacketFan

Helluva Engineer
Messages
8,348
Location
Nashville, TN
Short version :) Born in Marietta, dad at Lockheed, met Billy Lothridge, Maxie Vaughn and Billy Martin while playing for the Blackwell Bears. Went to my 1st GA Tech game in September 1957 in my mother's arms and have lived and died with Tech football ever since! Side trips to SoCal and TN during the last 20 or so years, now back in Marietta! Full circle so to speak. :D
 

sidewalkGTfan

Helluva Engineer
Messages
1,276
To be honest I have no clue...I was born, raised and still living in NC. I don't have a single relative from or living in the state of GA. I don't have a single relative that attended any college in the state of GA. I've been a fan since I was a kid. The '90 National Championship year, I would've been about 10 years old, so I was probably at a very impressionable age, caught a glimpse of the greatness and was hooked.

I am a true sidewalk fan. The only tie I have to GT is my heart and the white and gold running through my veins...
 
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