Carol Moore was scared of GOL

[OldeGold]

Ahso, you are spot on here.

As a kid in New Orleans I ushered at Tulane games and the Sugar Bowl. Seeing GT play in the Sugar Bowl in 1956 and 1957 (IIRC) I was hooked. I'll never forget the model airplane they flew at halftime (made to look like a Yellow Jacket of course). Even though I ended up at Purdue for B.S., the Tech intrigue continued and I ended up there for graduate school. This would never have happened if not for that earlier memory, since I was not in the Southeast.

Coincidently, my first job was at Lockheed and one of my co-workers was Bob Barton, who I learned was the one flying that model plane 10 years earlier.

 

[BEESerk]

Originally posted by ncjacket:
BEESerk, my experience working at Duke for 11 years is contrary to your opinion. Even a school with the academic reputation Duke has experiences increases in applicants and acceptance rates when their basketball team does well. Does that make it a better school? I don't know. If you can choose a higher caliber of student it should improve the academic standing of the school. I believe that if Tech dropped to D-2 we would still be a great engineering school. But it would have an affect on Tech. We would see fewer applicants. We would see much less involvement and interest from alumni. And I believe we would get significantly less support from the state.

<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">The fact that you are trying to use "Puke" as an example completely invalidates your opinion!

(just messin with you!)

 

[bizzybee]

As far as DB and Moore are concerned, the INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM!! Someone needs to come in there, jerk everybody around, and grab control of this situation gone haywire!!

 

[Thunder]

BEEserk, to answer your question, no I have not. Secondly, I apologize for not clarifying that I was not thinking of GT from an engineering perspective at all as I am not an engineer. I was looking at Tech from both the computing perspective (an area where I feel GT is better than average, but not great), and on a larger scale, the fact that the curriculum is limited.

No doubt the many engineering programs are strong at Tech and my brother-in-law has worked with and interviewed a number of engineering graduates from Tech during his time at Honeywell. You are quite right about GT's reputation in the engineering industry. I concede your point there.

However, when I said that I was looking at things from a larger scale, I mean that GT still has a reputation as a niche school. I believe that MIT and CalTech have broader curriculums than GT, and that is definitely the case with Ivy League schools. Thus, I believe GT's athletic program promotes the national awareness of the entire university more so than the academic program alone because even with a narrower curriculum than the aforementioned schools, GT offers something that they do not -- successful athletic programs that have or had national recognition at some point. I think that most people in general -- not just those in the engineering fields -- would recognize GT for its sports programs before its academic programs.

I also don't believe that the academic and athletic programs at GT are exclusive of one another. Ahsoisee theorized that if there were no football at GT, the school would not be as popular. I agree with that. Football has an especially deep history here as he said above. I also agree with his last point that a number of students come here because of the balance of sports and academics. That is what makes GT unique.

 

[BEESerk]

Thunder,

I see where you are coming from now, and you make excellent points! I can't argue with them either except for the last paragraph.

If we did not have football it would not be as popular to who? People who value sports more than a career in the degrees that GT offers?

Don't lose sight that GT is an engineering school (I include the pure science programs in this) first and foremost. That is its roots and soul. We are the MIT of the south, but we are not MIT at the same time. We aren't as diversified as MIT, but we are getting there in the right way.

From everything I see and read, our management program is becoming better and better every year. It is providing the diveristy and high standards that will take GT into a new era. How ironic that managment will make us be more like MIT!

A number of students may come here because of GT sports, but statistically it is insignificant. I am glad they are here though!

 

[Thunder]

I guess I'm speaking in broader terms and I do mean the general public and not any targeted group of people with that last paragraph on football popularity.

I agree with your assessment of the management program. The new Technology Square project is physical evidence of the university's committment to the school of management. The computing department should be improving as well over the next half decade since they will also be getting new resources and a new building between their current building and the baseball field. I think improvement in that department is the key to match up better with MIT in academic curriculum.

The science and engineering programs will always be the staple of GT. If a situation arose where it came down to downsizing athletics or watering down academics, GT would downsize athletics. A school's main draw should always be its academics -- after all, they're schools, and GT is unquestionably one of the better ones. Still, downsizing athletics would hurt the school financially. I don't know how much, but it would hurt nonetheless.

My main point -- or at least the one I intended to make all along -- was that GT isn't quite yet an MIT academically (though it's eventually getting there) and I certainly hope it does not become an MIT athletically.

 

[goldmember]

Originally posted by BEESerk:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Originally posted by ahsoisee:
This affects Tech in many ways. Georgia Tech is one of the most well known technical schools in the country. It is popular and draws many of its students because of both the academics and sports.

The popularity of the school also benefits the president and the faculty. If there were no football, the school would not be as popular, might have fewer students, smaller salary for the president, and smaller salaries for the faculty.

If the sports became insignificant at Tech, it is possible the large contributions might also drop in all facets of the school.

<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Sorry Ahso, your first paragraph doesn't fly one bit. GT could drop to Div. 2 athletics today and it would not have a significant impact on the "popularity" of the school from an Academic stand point, or academic recruitment. Nor would it affect the financial situation of GT in any manner that you could notice. Sports does not draw "many" (your words) students to GT. GT Sports doesn't help a single GT graduate in their job interviews.

Your second paragraph it sounds like you are talking in theoretical terms. Sure in theory all of that is possible... for a place like UGA. Not so for GT. State of the football program at GT has had exteremely minimal if any impact on those things you mention.

Your third paragraph, while I recognize you are simply proposing an idea, that idea doesn't hold any water either. If you understood where GT's money comes from, then you would know that dropping football all together would have zero impact. Heck, I would venture to say it migh actually generate more revenue for the academic/research side.

Academics and Athletics at Tech, while they have coexisted for a long itme, are mutually exclusive. One does not need the other.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">I couldn't disagree more. GT could obviously survive without athletics. However, things would not be the same and GT would have a hard time getting the number of qualified applicants every year. Just look at the early 80's when applications to the school declined. We could potentially become a very small, highly focused technical school like Cal Tech but we would not be GT anymore.

 

[GTPilot]

I disagree about athletics not affecting the reputation or enrollment in a school. In fact I think it helps tremendously in marketing the Tech name and I don't think any college would field athletic teams and put the money in them if it didn't help their overall bottom line.

Why do I feel this way? Because I come from Washington state where I can assure you that having a Tech degree doesn't mean squat. However, a big reason why I chose to apply to Tech and the reason people from my area knew Tech was because of its basketball program (Price / Salley years are what even brought the program to my attention). People can say what they want but a Tech degree doesn't carry nearly as much weight as some like to imagine outside of the Southeast. Athletics are what has helped increase our national image and without it you would see a significant decrease in both enrollment and donations.

 

[statelinejacket]

Originally posted by ahsoisee:
BeeSerk, I have stated my opinions and you have stated yours. That is good, now others can throw the items back and forth and comment on them.

I will tell you that the beginning of Bobby Dodd and his great teams in the early fifties plus his amazing wins in the bowl games helped put Tech on the map in the South.

At that time people all around the South came to Grant Field to see the Yellow Jackets play their brand of football. It became very hard to get tickets in those days with most games being sellouts.

That era of football, indeed, placed Tech on the map as a school known across the US. I read years ago the reason more and more colleges were fielding football teams was the fact it caused more students to attend those colleges. I can see the reasoning, because many kids go to college to have fun along with getting a degree.

<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Georgia Southern University is an excellent example of growth thru athlectics and football in particular. Remember when Erk Russell started their program the name of the school was Georgia Southern College. The resulting explosion of growth has been credited to the football program exposing the school to people who never would have heard of it.