How did you become a TECH fan?

[Jackethawk]

I was born!

 

[CLHarperJackt]

Born and raised in the ATL and GT class of '95.

 

[Skeptic]

Nice thread.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

Always liked the underdog. All my friends were UGA fans in elementary school so of course me being the nerd of the group I went for the nerd underdog. Been die hard ever since even while attending UGA.

 

[BCJacket]

My Dad went to GSU. Since they didn't have Football back then, he pulled for that school in Athens. In '98 he was given tickets to the Tech game and he took me and my brother. It was my first college game. It didn't go according to plan... Our seats were close to the visiting band. By the end of the day my brother and I knew the "good word" and the words to "Ramblin' Wreck From Ga Tech". We bought season tickets for Tech the next several years.

I ended up going to Athens my freshmen year. I learned to bark like an idiot and everything. Long story short, after the first semester I realized I was surrounded by ***-hats. So, I literally said "to hell with Georgia" and finished up my undergrad at GSU. My time in Athens only honed my doggy-hate. So, I went to Tech games as often as possible and got into grad school at Tech. Got out last year.

 

[Mack]

I am 67 yrs old and first began to be a fan in early fifties when we were a force to be reckoned with.Course all of you know how great our Dodd unis looked compared to the other drab colors of other teams and sure like the class of Dodd.In Wadley we took the Constipation on Sunday and on the front of the paper there would be a pass play outlined with dots etc..I do not like our present unis but sure like our school......course it is still so much fun to watch doggie fans hide from you after last years game.

 

[jacket fan in dairyland]

I grew up in Barnesville , Georgia as a Dwag fan , Fran Tarkenton especially. What was wrong with me ??? At that time Gordon Military in Barnesville had a great JUCO team. A couple of guys in classes ahead of me from the JUCO went to Tech ( Bubba Hoats and Zollie ( Smitty ) Graham ) . Bubba had a good career at Tech. I think he had a couple of interceptions against the Dwags one year. This was in the mid to late 1960's. I was always a big Kim King fan also ," the young left hander " , as Al Ciraldo would say. When I started paying more attention to Tech, I became a huge fan. I enrolled in 1968 and graduated in 1973. Enjoyed the Bud Carson years ..... Rock Perdoni, Smylie Gebhart, Steve Harkey, Brad Bourne are a few names that come to mind. So glad I saw the light !

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

I grew up in Barnesville , Georgia as a Dwag fan , Fran Tarkenton especially. What was wrong with me ??? At that time Gordon Military in Barnesville had a great JUCO team. A couple of guys in classes ahead of me from the JUCO went to Tech ( Bubba Hoats and Zollie ( Smitty ) Graham ) . Bubba had a good career at Tech. I think he had a couple of interceptions against the Dwags one year. This was in the mid to late 1960's. I was always a big Kim King fan also ," the young left hander " , as Al Ciraldo would say. When I started paying more attention to Tech, I became a huge fan. I enrolled in 1968 and graduated in 1973. Enjoyed the Bud Carson years ..... Rock Perdoni, Smylie Gebhart, Steve Harkey, Brad Bourne are a few names that come to mind. So glad I saw the light !

Bubba had 3 picks on Grant Field in 1969 against the Bulldogs.

 

[jacket fan in dairyland]

Bubba had 3 picks on Grant Field in 1969 against the Bulldogs.

Thanks ! My memory ain't what it used to be .......

 

[YJAlleyCat]

My Dad was a Tech grad and worked at GTRI, so I grew up in a Tech house. I never considered going to any other school when it was time for me to attend college. Dad had football season tickets for 33 years until he died. Now I have those season tickets.

These stories from everyone are wonderful. Whether you were born in a Tech house (because your parents were awesome), became a fan because you went there (or someone close to you did), or you chose to be a Tech fan on your own (because you are classy and have excellent taste) - one thing is certain: TOGETHER WE SWARM.

 

[Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau]

Thanks ! My memory ain't what it used to be .......

my flask and I were there in the student section, but the second half remains a blur. I know Perdoni had a big game, too.

 

[GTHOSCHTON]

Born and raised In Atlanta..... my father was an avid Tech fan and my mother went to uga so we had a house divided... my brother, dad and myself for Tech and my Mom and two sisters for uga. Dad would take us to the baby jackets and bullpup game at thanksgiving..... Shriners game.... I believe the motto was....Strong legs will run so weak legs my walk.....remember listening to Al Ciraldo on the radio for football and basketball............one of my sisters dated a Tech football player and always remember him bringing me a Steve Raible tear away jersey wore it all the time, he also gave us tickets to the 74 Tech vs uga game in which Tech crushed uga 34- 14 we sat in the pouring rain to cheer the Jackets on in Athens... had an opportunity to attend Tech and walk on as a football player but choose to go to small school and play but have always pulled for the Jackets..... married a bulldog fan.....started going to a few games each year and finally have had season tickets the last ten years.....sent my Son to Tech and he graduated with high honors from business school in December 2014 .....oh and by the way we have four season tickets now and I attend the games with my Father and Mother who converted and is now a huge Tech fan both in thier middle 80's and will not miss a game....and my Wife who now loves to say THWG.....

 

[redmule]

It all started around 1917. My great uncle moved to Atlanta from a crossroads town in East Georgia to work at the Atlantic Steel Mill during WWI. Sometime that year, my Grandfather (around 10 years old then) went to Atlanta to spend some time with his older brother. Being that close to Tech, he naturally came in contact with some Tech guys and what was going on with the football team (1st MNC). He came back home and farmed for a living. Fast forward 40 years to the mid 50's. An early memory was sitting in the front porch swing with him singing Ramblin Wreck. He also taught me a lot of Stephen Foster songs, but that was my earliest recollection of GT. My father, who didn't finish high school used his GI Bill after he got home from WWII to attend some Vocational Agriculture classes at uga to learn how to farm better. He leaned uga, but really liked high school football. In the early 60's, I'd say that the folks around home that cared were about evenly split among Tech and uga fans. Of course in small town rural Georgia at that time there were few college graduates; only teachers, doctors, druggists, lawyers basically. Guess where many of them went to college, so the impulse was always toward the darkness. Only knew one Tech grad growing up. Dodd left Tech, vince dooley came to uga, and uga had their best teams in years in the mid 60's. The herd stampeded to uga. Our football coach at that time was an uga grad, and his arrogance about all things uga knew no boundaries. Any boys that were Tech fans were held up for extra ridicule in class and on the field. You know the drill. Yet it taught me to channel the abuse of teachers into anger and resolve, something that served me well later at Tech. It also spliced a G and a T into my DNA. When they dig up my mummified remains in 5,000 years, scientific papers will be written on the mutation in DNA that occurred in at least one East Georgia hominid in the late second millennium

I came to GT on the GI Bill and graduated in '77. Tech was everything I hoped and feared it would be academically. It made me successful professionally and financially, and I will always be grateful. Went to every home football game and most home basketball games during those years. Work forced me to move away for a few years, but moved back as soon as I could. Bought my first Basketball season ticket in 1983 and Football in 1984. Still have the football tickets, and have missed three home games in 31 years. Hewitt made me puke up the basketball tickets.

 

[Architorture23]

grew up in East Georgia and barely even knew anybody but a UGA fan for the first 15 years of my life. but I knew I wanted to be an architect by the time I was about 13 and knew I wanted to go to GT. never applied to any other schools, never even visited campus before being accepted. started in 2000 and been out for 10 years now. freshman year got to rag on my UGA friends when the Goose got loose.

 

[Eastman]

I'm 58 and from Savannah Ga. My dad was somewhat of a self taught salesman/engineer who loved Tech. He would design systems as a value add in order to sell the parts needed (bearings/drives etc). His boss was a Tech grad who once a year would take his entire company, their sons and a couple clients to a Tech game. We would ride the Nancy Hanks train from Savannah and it was great all day trip, drinking and cards for the men and paper football and train investigations for us kids.

The games were a highlight for my year. During the sixties Bill Eastman was my favorite player (Lenny Snow for my dad). I was always the only kid in my class that was a Tech fan but I liked that fine. Several friends played for the mutts and I wanted to like them as my #2 or 3 school but I kept seeing horrific classless conduct from their fans and the hatred has grown.

 

[takethepoints]

My father was killed in an aircraft accident in 1949 when I was 3 and my brother had just been born. He was test flying one of the first jets that the Navy had sent to his squadron and the ejection seat didn't work.

We moved back to Atlanta and my maternal uncle decided to be a surrogate father to us. He was an industrial engineer and had been a BMOC athlete (track and baseball) when he was at Tech. He brought me a Tech sweater and a rat cap. He also took me to Tech football games and other athletic events. It made me a Tech fan for life.

Not so my brother. He couldn't go with us because he was too young. He grew up a Dwag, but he's grown out of it, thank God. Oth, my son got the same treatment from me that I did from my uncle. He's an even bigger Tech fan then I am and we have a great time watching the games.

 

[danny daniel]

My Father admired Bobby Dodd and he made sure I was first in the family to go to college (I survived GT Engineering because of that pressure). I got out in 67 and my daughter enrolled in the Ross era and played in the Band in the NC year. She moved out of state and I had a scheduling conflict on Saturdays and missed most of the games. However she moved back near home for the 2012 season and we have become a strong twosome fan(s). I give special thanks to Tony Zenon who became a friend and assisted us being involved with GT events, including home and away games.

 

[UgaBlows]

My Dad was a Boy Scout usher at Grant Field in the Coach Dodd era and he tought me to love all things GT. I started paying attention to and seriously following GT football in 1990 and haven't looked back.

 

[bentlloyd]

Grew up in Statesboro, GA with plenty of rabid Georgia Bulldog fans. I wanted to be an engineer, so I started pulling for Tech in 6th grade, which was in 2009. I fell in love with the team (Jonathan Dwyer, Bay bay, Josh Nesbitt, Morgan Burnett, Derrick Morgan, etc.), and haven't looked back since. I was known as one of like 2 Tech fans in my school, with everyone else being Georgia fans. I'm now a rising Sophomore EE at Tech and love Tech football and Atl sports.

 

[Enuratique]

My father worked at GTRI when I was in middle school. He took me there before a Homecoming game and I got to play around with a virtual reality surgeon application and dissected an eyeball. At the time, this was cutting edge stuff - and I ate it up. Later we got some chili dogs and a frosted orange, I sat in the rumble seat, and went to the game. Luckily for me, I knew computer science was what I wanted to do, so applying to GT and GT only was what I did.