Georgia Tech in popular culture
There are many instances of Georgia Tech in popular culture, especially in feature films.
Movies
*The Georgia Tech library, the Skiles classroom building, and Tech Square served as locations for the filming of One Missed Call (2007).
*A Georgia Tech notebook is displayed on the shelf in a backroom where Ray Winstone and Leonardo DiCaprio go to beat up some guys in The Departed (2006).
*Some members of the Georgia Tech marching band played the role of the Marshall marching band in We Are Marshall (2006).
*The Georgia Tech library was featured as the library at the fictitious Atlanta A&T University in the movie Drumline (2002). Tech is also mentioned by name in the movie, when the only white student at the black university is asked (jokingly) "what's the matter, not enough black kids at Georgia Tech?"
*Many of the outdoor scenes of the walking tour that sets the stage in the movie Road Trip (2000) were filmed between the Skiles classroom building and the student center, including the Skiles walkway (the Skiles building was incorrectly referred to as a dorm in the movie). Also, one classroom scene was shot inside a large lecture hall that was notorious for being one of the most uncomfortable places to attend class on campus. Tech Tower also played the role as Boston College's administrative building in the middle of the film.
*The movie Hyderabad Blues (1998) depicts a graduate student returning home to India to face his parents' proposal of marriage. The student, Nagesh Kukunoor, is seen wearing a Georgia Tech T-shirt. Additionally, Nagesh attended Georgia Tech as a graduate student before becoming a movie producer.
*In the movie Devil's Advocate (1997), starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves, Pacino tells Reeves that one of the interns on their law firm goes to Georgia Tech.
*In the movie Contact (1997), the character S.R. Hadden (played by John Hurt), responds to a comment about his technical abilities with the statement: 'Once upon a time, I was a hell of an engineer'. This is a reference to Georgia Tech's fight song, Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech.
*The Georgia Tech football team was portrayed near the end of Rudy (1993), losing 24-3. In a famous scene from the movie, the title character finally gets a chance to play for the University of Notre Dame as he is put into the ballgame towards the closing moments of the Irish-Yellow Jacket matchup.
*The Touchstone Pictures movie The Program (1993) (starring James Caan as the coach, Omar Epps and Craig Sheffer as players, and Halle Berry and Kristy Swanson as co-eds), features (at the start and near the end) Georgia Tech (in gold helmets with white GT logo, blue and then white jerseys, and gold pants) playing a fictional "ESU" team" (with garnet and gold colors suggesting FSU).
*The Georgia Tech ATΩ fraternity house was featured in Love Potion No. 9 (1992) starring Tate Donovan and a then largely unknown Sandra Bullock.
*Stevie Ray Vaughan's video for his hit song "The House Is Rockin'" was shot entirely inside the Chi Phi fraternity house at Georgia Tech during the summer of 1990. It would be Vaughan's last music video before he died in a helicopter crash later that year.
*The Tech campus, especially Rose Bowl Field football practice area and the former Heisman Gym were used in filming the movie The Bear (1984), starring Gary Busey as Paul "Bear" Bryant.
*In Deliverance (1972), one of the cars driven by the main characters has a front license plate that reads "Georgia Tech."
*Gregory Peck played and sang the world-renowned "Ramblin' Wreck" fight song in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and John Wayne whistled a bit of it in the The High and the Mighty (1954) (after convincing the captain to attempt to make it to San Francisco rather than ditch the plane in the ocean). It was no doubt carefully selected as a sign of success, since Georgia Tech was in its glory days of football, winning six bowl games in six years and being named National Champion by organizations in 1951, 1952, and 1956, though Georgia Tech currently only claims the 1952 season.
Books
Nonfiction
*John Heisman: Principles of Football (ISBN 1-892-51499-0) describes the philosophy and plays used by the great John Heisman, Tech's first paid coach.
*Dodd's Luck (ISBN 0-932958-09-5) describes Bobby Dodd's highly successful football coaching career in his own words.
*In Thomas L. Friedman's book, "The World Is Flat," (ISBN 978-0374292799) an entire chapter is devoted to Georgia Tech's efforts to rise to the top of the engineering schools, and how they have achieved that by integrating science and arts, creating a "connectedness" that Friedman believes is essential for success in our global economy.
Fiction
*In Tom Wolfe's novel, A Man in Full (ISBN 0-374-27032-5), the central character, a developer named Charlie Croker (who was a former 250-lb GT football player), is pressured by Atlanta leaders to support Fareek Fanon, a modern, black, Georgia Tech football star who may or may not have raped the white socialite daughter of a prominent Atlanta businessman; while the girl's father pressures Charlie to denounce the accused football player.
*In B. B. Rose's novel, Halls of Poison Ivy (ISBN 0-972-47270-3), Georgia Tech is the setting of the murder of a graduate student. The administration and several students feature prominently in the ensuing mystery.
*In James Michener's novel Space (ISBN 0-449-20379-4), one of the central characters is a visionary aerospace engineer from Georgia Tech named Stanley Mott. In the miniseries version of the book, Stanley Mott is played by Bruce Dern.
Images
*Marilyn Monroe on the cover of the September 9, 1952 issue of Look Magazine, as shown above.
*Brooke Shields in a photo in the August 10, 1981 issue of People Magazine. Brooke Shields' publicity agent said the jersey was a gift from an admirer "and she really does like it."
