The ghosts of Homecoming past

Supersize that order mutt

Supersize that order mutt

Dodd-Like
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It's Homecoming Week at Georgia Tech. When I was a student, nothing got me more excited with anticipation than all the competition and pageantry that this very unique experience at Ga. Tech provided it's student body.....the Freshman Cake Race, the Mini 500, the front yard display contest, and of course the Ramblin' Wreck Contraption contest.
The contraption contest has all but disappeared today with the shift from hands-on mechanical know-how to computer related know-how of today's students, but it was something in its day! These images are from 1978.
 

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It's Homecoming Week at Georgia Tech. When I was a student, nothing got me more excited with anticipation than all the competition and pageantry that this very unique experience at Ga. Tech provided it's student body.....the Freshman Cake Race, the Mini 500, the front yard display contest, and of course the Ramblin' Wreck Contraption contest.
The contraption contest has all but disappeared today with the shift from hands-on mechanical know-how to computer related know-how of today's students, but it was something in its day! These images are from 1978.
 

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Two More ---
 

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The Wreck Parade is pretty lame anymore, honestly. No good contraptions, lots of reuse of the same stuff from year to year. It’s a shame.

JRjr
 
Not homecoming, but definitely a forgotten piece of Tech history ---

Images discussing the 1916 "Champions of the South" banquet. Tech was 8-0-1 (the tie was against Washington and Lee).
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Great side note: Tech's 1916 star halfback Everette Strupper was partially deaf; because of his deafness, he called the signals instead of the team's quarterback. When "Strupe" tried out for the team, he noticed that the quarterback shouted the signals every time he was to carry the ball. Realizing that the loud signals would be a tip-off to the opposition, Strupper told coach Heisman: "Coach, those loud signals are absolutely unnecessary. You see when sickness in my kid days brought on this deafness my folks gave me the best instructors obtainable to teach me lip-reading." Heisman recalled how Strupper overcame his deafness: "He couldn't hear anything but a regular shout. But he could read your lips like a flash. No lad that ever stepped on a football field had keener eyes than Everett had. The enemy found this out the minute he began looking for openings through which to run the ball."
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And two more
 

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True or False: focusing on admitting more females has had a negative impact on Tech traditions like the ones described above and fan support of the football program.
 
GTCrew4b said:
True or False: focusing on admitting more females has had a negative impact on Tech traditions like the ones described above and fan support of the football program.
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Possible, I guess, but I have seen an awful lot of female Tech students really getting into it at games.
 
savbandjacket said:
False. Admitting too many foreigners has had a negative impact on Tech traditions and fan support.
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I was in Glenn Hall my freshman year and it was 90% Georgians and Floridians on my floor. I couldn’t find anyone to go to the games with me on Saturday because they were too busy playing on their computers or watching anime. Maybe you should blame Georgia public school system for producing large numbers of dumbasses so that only nerds get into Tech.
 
Akinji07 said:
I was in Glenn Hall my freshman year and it was 90% Georgians and Floridians on my floor. I couldn’t find anyone to go to the games with me on Saturday because they were too busy playing on their computers or watching anime. Maybe you should blame Georgia public school system for producing large numbers of dumbasses so that only nerds get into Tech.
Click to expand...
I’m obviously not talking of you. You’re a great fan. You know the Saturday library crew of which I speak.
 
savbandjacket said:
False. Admitting too many foreigners has had a negative impact on Tech traditions and fan support.
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Huh? I don’t know the numbers but I’d bet good money American enrollment is at least 2x what it was “back in the day” or whatever time period you’re referring to preserve our traditions. I didn’t know a single non-American GT student when I got out in the 2000s and people were claiming the same thing.

Find the enrollment demos and post them.
 
savbandjacket said:
I’m obviously not talking of you. You’re a great fan. You know the Saturday library crew of which I speak.
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No I know. I agree with you that admitting large number of foreigners has an impact. But until I joined PKT I didn’t see many of the locals care football. They were like the kids who joined Cobra Kai in season 1.
 
THWUGA said:
I didn’t know a single non-American GT student when I got out in the 2000s and people were claiming the same thing.
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That’s because they were hiding in the library.
 
savbandjacket said:
False. Admitting too many foreigners has had a negative impact on Tech traditions and fan support.
Click to expand...

GT's undergrad student body is only 10% international. Obviously that's not nothing but I'd say the "problem" lies more with the 90% non-international students we admit than the 10% international students.
 
Some factors I think could contribute to declining interest in traditions:

1. More international students than cow colleges
2. Selection for non-international students who are less likely to care about sports/traditions
3. Bad football team (sorry but true)
4. General waning interest in college sports
5. Perhaps contemporary culture that is suspicious of traditions as problematic (the products of white males)
6. Internet providing more options for entertainment and group membership
7. Protective, rulesish organizational culture that is less tolerant of transgression (e.g., stealing the T, Gold Standard)
 
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