The ghosts of Homecoming past

The parade isn’t as much fun as it used to be because it’s at 6 ööööing AM and none of us have the youth or energy of a 19 year old anymore.

Like, contraptions made with a V2 rocket engine or a “static impulse drive train” are fun. But you know what’s more fun? Sleeping in.
 
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.
How many Students are 1st or 2nd Generation born in America but have strong International influence in their lives such that they don't embrace traditional American Sports like CFB?

GT might list International students as students that enroll from non US high Schools and transfer from non US Colleges, but there are a lot of Asian & Indian Students from US High Schools that might as well be international students, because their culture & upbringing is like an International student.

My point is that GT feels way more than 10% international students
 
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.

Has anyone ever put a value on the Ramblin Wreck car? Is it owned by GT or a family / individual?
 
How many Students are 1st or 2nd Generation born in America but have strong International influence in their lives such that they don't embrace traditional American Sports like CFB?

GT might list International students as students that enroll from non US high Schools and transfer from non US Colleges, but there are a lot of Asian & Indian Students from US High Schools that might as well be international students, because their culture & upbringing is like an International student.

My point is that GT feels way more than 10% international students

I don't think they keep statistics on 2nd generation Americans who aren't really Americans because they feel more like internationals.
 
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)

Its # 2 and #3 guys, not “foreigners”. Forget the percentages, we have never had more American students at GT in its history.
 
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)

This is an interesting exercise. Here's how I would rank it:

1. Bad football team (sorry but true)
2. Selection for non-international students who are less likely to care about sports/traditions
3. Internet providing more options for entertainment and group membership
4. More international students than cow colleges (10% of our undergrad is international -- "cow colleges" seem to come in at around 5% per a quick google)
5. General waning interest in college sports (is this a subset of more options for entertainment/group membership?)
6. Perhaps contemporary culture that is suspicious of traditions as problematic (the products of white males)
7. Protective, rulesish organizational culture that is less tolerant of transgression (e.g., stealing the T, Gold Standard)
 
This is an interesting exercise. Here's how I would rank it:

1. Bad football team (sorry but true)
2. Selection for non-international students who are less likely to care about sports/traditions
3. Internet providing more options for entertainment and group membership
4. More international students than cow colleges (10% of our undergrad is international -- "cow colleges" seem to come in at around 5% per a quick google)
5. General waning interest in college sports (is this a subset of more options for entertainment/group membership?)
6. Perhaps contemporary culture that is suspicious of traditions as problematic (the products of white males)
7. Protective, rulesish organizational culture that is less tolerant of transgression (e.g., stealing the T, Gold Standard)

Does GT have an Administration from the President on down that support Athletics at GT? Obviously the academics speak for themselves but are Athletics seen as important to those same people?
 
Continuing a look at the past, here are 4 ancient recordings (80+ years old) of the Ramblin' Wreck Song









Also a player piano version


And a more recent bluegrass version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qEAE2jL3QA&ab_channel=TreyPalmer

Now this is cool stuff. My Dad (who owned Yesterday’s Music in Buckhead) had an old version of this on a 78 of course I was a kid at the time and didn’t appreciate the historical value and it was GT. But, I eventually grew up and perspectives mature.
 
Since the 60s, nope.

If that’s truly the case then that does suck. The Administration is missing a great way of enhancing the GT brand across the country. You never want to sacrifice academics and I don’t believe you have to but the two css add n coexist. I may be wrong here but I think it was Homer Rice that created a couple of majors or classes that would allow athletes to get a great education but it wasn’t the rigor of Nuclear physics or whatever they train you smart guys at Tech to be. This didn’t hurt the school but allowed a path for Athletes if they wanted. Of course, I may not have all my facts straight here but that’s what I recall.
 
Admit it for what it is. This is not because of hordes of foreigners getting off the boat and destroying the culture at Tech. It’s not because we have a bunch of women now. It’s because of Tech destroying its own culture. Even when I enrolled in 2002, Tech entrusted my entire freshman campus culture experience with a PL who couldn’t give two öööös about anything other than his own grades. There was no organization to hype me about football games, basketball games or other events. You had to figure everything out on your own. The whole Faset thing was underwhelming. Other than the frats who really gives a öööö about any traditions at Tech? Nobody. Not unless they had a parent who went to Tech.

Compare that with what they do at any other school we play in any sport. Josh Pastner had to bribe students with free donuts so they’d come to a game when the team was doing well. Think about that.
 
If that’s truly the case then that does suck. The Administration is missing a great way of enhancing the GT brand across the country. You never want to sacrifice academics and I don’t believe you have to but the two css add n coexist. I may be wrong here but I think it was Homer Rice that created a couple of majors or classes that would allow athletes to get a great education but it wasn’t the rigor of Nuclear physics or whatever they train you smart guys at Tech to be. This didn’t hurt the school but allowed a path for Athletes if they wanted. Of course, I may not have all my facts straight here but that’s what I recall.
Most, if not all, Tech presidents attend games and, at least in the past, have attended alumni gatherings, including those at which coaches spoke, but the last Tech president I can remember who at least seemed to have a REAL interest in the team was Ed Harrison.

Edwin D. Harrison (1957-1968)
  • Expanded campus, adding Skiles Classroom Building, the Nuclear Reactor, and six dormitories.
  • Facilitated the racial integration of Georgia Tech, making it the first public institution of higher learning to do so peacefully, and without court order, in the Deep South.
  • Facilitated, with football coach Bobby Dodd, Tech’s departure from the SEC.
  • Created procedure dealing with competitive pay for faculty.
  • Oversaw the construction of Physics, the Space Science and Technology Center, Chemical Engineering buildings, and the East Library, and seating additions to the football stadium.
  • The School of Information and Computer Science, the first in the country, was established in 1963.
He may have been no better than more recent ones, but he at least seemed to be an avid supporter.
 
Admit it for what it is. This is not because of hordes of foreigners getting off the boat and destroying the culture at Tech. It’s not because we have a bunch of women now. It’s because of Tech destroying its own culture. Even when I enrolled in 2002, Tech entrusted my entire freshman campus culture experience with a PL who couldn’t give two öööös about anything other than his own grades. There was no organization to hype me about football games, basketball games or other events. You had to figure everything out on your own. The whole Faset thing was underwhelming. Other than the frats who really gives a öööö about any traditions at Tech? Nobody. Not unless they had a parent who went to Tech.

Compare that with what they do at any other school we play in any sport. Josh Pastner had to bribe students with free donuts so they’d come to a game when the team was doing well. Think about that.
FSU and most flagship State universities are 55 to 58% women and when things are good those places are packed with Fans.
 
Most, if not all, Tech presidents attend games and, at least in the past, have attended alumni gatherings, including those at which coaches spoke, but the last Tech president I can remember who at least seemed to have a REAL interest in the team was Ed Harrison.

Edwin D. Harrison (1957-1968)
  • Expanded campus, adding Skiles Classroom Building, the Nuclear Reactor, and six dormitories.
  • Facilitated the racial integration of Georgia Tech, making it the first public institution of higher learning to do so peacefully, and without court order, in the Deep South.
  • Facilitated, with football coach Bobby Dodd, Tech’s departure from the SEC.
  • Created procedure dealing with competitive pay for faculty.
  • Oversaw the construction of Physics, the Space Science and Technology Center, Chemical Engineering buildings, and the East Library, and seating additions to the football stadium.
  • The School of Information and Computer Science, the first in the country, was established in 1963.
He may have been no better than more recent ones, but he at least seemed to be an avid supporter.
Yeah, right!

He was so interested in GT FB, he helped take us out of the SEC, maybe the single worst move in the History of American Sports since the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

With a "Pro Athletics School Prez" like that who needs enemies like uga?
 
If that’s truly the case then that does suck. The Administration is missing a great way of enhancing the GT brand across the country. You never want to sacrifice academics and I don’t believe you have to but the two css add n coexist. I may be wrong here but I think it was Homer Rice that created a couple of majors or classes that would allow athletes to get a great education but it wasn’t the rigor of Nuclear physics or whatever they train you smart guys at Tech to be. This didn’t hurt the school but allowed a path for Athletes if they wanted. Of course, I may not have all my facts straight here but that’s what I recall.
GT has had a form of Business Admin (nee Industrial Mgmt) for a very long time, probably since the 1930s (a guess)

Homer Rice didn't add any Majors, we don't let ADs do that at GT (I'm teasing you here -- the State BoR allowed us to add majors),

in the last 20 to 25 years GT has added:

HST - History of Society & Technology
LMC - Literature Media & Communication
Management has been rebranded as BS in Business Administration

There might be 1 other "new" Major that I can't think of right now
 
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