The Ramblin’ Wreck of Georgia Tech

Atlanta, Georgia

I have visited Atlanta several times and spent many visits at The Varsity, but until last August, I had never set foot on the Georgia Tech campus. During that trip, I persuaded Wyatt and Henry to join me in walking across the interstate (we were on a bridge, thankfully, not dodging cars like Frogger) so we could finally explore Georgia Tech’s campus.

We were able to see Bobby Dodd Stadium, an on-campus football stadium that dates back to a time when football was a campus-wide affair on Saturday afternoons. Games were typically played for local bragging rights, and at the end of a great season, teams would receive an invitation to a bowl game where students, alumni, and fans could make an impromptu New Year’s Day vacation. Georgia Tech has a strong football pedigree, as it was an original member of the Southeastern Conference and won five conference championships before leaving the league in 1964. Georgia Tech left the SEC because Head Coach and Athletic Director Bobby Dodd felt that it was unfair how scholarships were designated in the SEC, where 45 scholarships were handed out each year for football and basketball, but since the schools could only have a maximum of 140 scholarships, football and basketball coaches could cut players at any time. Coach Dodd did not think that it was right to cut someone’s scholarship just because the coaches did not properly assess their abilities during recruiting. The vote on the rule was 6-6, and recruiting practices remained the same for the SEC, so Georgia Tech decided to leave the conference. Georgia Tech played for many years without a conference, but they eventually joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1978. For my entire life, I have known Georgia Tech only as an ACC school, and I have fond memories of many ACC games featuring the Yellow Jackets. The ACC was a tight-knit conference that featured eight teams that played the best basketball in the country. Bobby Cremins was one of my favorite basketball coaches in the conference, and even when I was in college, I always enjoyed the N.C. State and Georgia Tech games in all sports, as it was a friendly rivalry against a couple of excellent engineering schools.

Outside the on-campus Bobby Dodd Stadium was a statue with a megaphone. The statue featured former head coach John Heisman, the innovator of the forward pass in football and the namesake of the trophy given to the top college football player each year. Heisman coached the most lopsided victory in college football history when Georgia Tech beat Cumberland 222-0 in 1916. Twenty years earlier, John Heisman was the head coach at Auburn when a number of students pulled off arguably the funniest prank in College Football history: they greased over 400 yards of railroad tracks, which kept the train carrying Georgia Tech from stopping at the Auburn stadium. The train stopped five miles away, and the players had to walk five miles back into Auburn. Auburn beat Georgia Tech in that game 45-0.

Besides the football stadium, Georgia Tech is an urban campus, a fact reflected in many of its buildings, which are cheaper to build up than out. This urban character is further demonstrated by its diverse student population of over 53,000, who come from all over the world. Additionally, Georgia Tech offers top-notch programs across many STEM areas, and all of its engineering programs are consistently ranked among the top 10 nationally.

We didn’t stay long on campus, but I am glad we decided to walk across the interstate to check out a place I have known about my entire life, but have never been to. As a college professor, I have a great appreciation for college campuses, and I am impressed by the sheer volume of learning and research that takes place on Georgia Tech’s campus and by the positive outcomes of its graduates. The trip to campus was nostalgic for me, as I got to reminisce about a time when college athletics meant friendly rivalries and larger-than-life personalities, rather than the lack of loyalty displayed today by coaches, players, and administrators. When traveling, if you want to see places that are well-manicured, that have cool-looking buildings, that might have interesting statues, and that provide ideal places for people watching, check out a college campus anywhere that you’re going.