The ghosts of Homecoming past

[PressManCoverage]

Since the 60s, nope.

Check that!

Pat Crecine was very Pro Athletics and was somewhat controversial and hated by a lot of "old guard" Alums (and not the gorgeous kind like Charlize Theron, Netflix Movie reference).

During Crecine's tenure we won a MNC in FB and made the Final Four in MBB in maybe a 12-15 month time frame, we might have made the CWS in Baseball too, but my memory isn't clear on that, but we did make the NCAA Baseball Playoffs like every year back then.

How can you forget Crecine?

 

[gambler]

The biggest problem is just society in general. Kids don't grow up knowing how to interact with each other these days. For us, it used to be go outside, meet other people, do some dumb öööö and try to get laid. Now it's stay inside, be online, and look at boobies on the interweb. Watching most young adults try to have a conversation with each other is a terribly awkward situation and if they are talking it seems to be lacking substance.

I don't know, maybe that's just my perception, but it's no mystery that large social events like homecoming would be impacted. I really feel for them missing out on what I considered to be some of the best parts of life, but it takes a village.

 

[Nehru Jacket]

The biggest problem is just society in general. Kids don't grow up knowing how to interact with each other these days. For us, it used to be go outside, meet other people, do some dumb öööö and try to get laid. Now it's stay inside, be online, and look at boobies on the interweb. Watching most young adults try to have a conversation with each other is a terribly awkward situation and if they are talking it seems to be lacking substance.

I don't know, maybe that's just my perception, but it's no mystery that large social events like homecoming would be impacted. I really feel for them missing out on what I considered to be some of the best parts of life, but it takes a village.

We have become a nation of introverts. Especially young people. Going to a football game takes an extrovert effort. It may change one day, but I doubt it.

 

[ATLNative]

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.

Wow, great info. It doesn’t seem like the folks in charge grasp how having a strong football program can benefit and help sell GT and you don’t have to sacrifice GT’ high academic standards. That’s why in one of my first posts on this site I said look at Stanford as a model. Yes I realize it’s not an exact match but, they seemed to have figured out how to make Athletics work really well at a school with high academic standards like GT.

 

[ATLNative]

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

Yeah, I really meant Homer Rice supported the creation of, not literally himself created. Either way it looks like I didn’t have correct info anyway. Here’s the problem, all you Tech guys are too smart. Knock a few points off your IQ and you would make better football players

 

[Chattanooga Jacket]

This 1971 Pontiac LeMans Wagon was the family car until I drove it for one year in high school. My dad then donated it to his frat in 1983-1984 for their homecoming entry. We were expecting to see it dismantled and turned into some weird contraption. Instead, it came screaming down the road just like the Death Mobile from Animal House.

 

[savbandjacket]

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.

The band cares very much about Tech traditions.

 

[andrew]

I've never seen so much rationalization in a single thread. Our team has sucked for the past three years. It was aggressively mediocre for the four years before that. It has been well over a full class of students since the football program was exciting; you even have long-time, relatively die hard fans on here who say they have better things to do on Saturday then spend a day watching us get our teeth kicked in.

This thread is looking at that situation and going: "Why aren't people interested in our program and traditions? It can't be because we suck. It's got to be the foreigners! No wait, it's got to be the women! Actually, the problem is with the entire ööööing nation. We've become a nation of introverts! Kids don't know how to interact with each other in a society!"

Sometimes it's good to take a step back and think about what you would say if you weren't a fan of your school. In this case, the answer to "Our football team is 9-20 over the past three seasons, why aren't more people interested in our football traditions?" is simply "Your football team is 9-20 over the past three seasons."

Start winning and interest will go way up. Once we're drawing 50k a game because we're winning, you can argue about whether we're not getting that last 5k because of foreigners or women or whatever other group of people you want to blame.

 

[savbandjacket]

I've never seen so much rationalization in a single thread. Our team has sucked for the past three years. It was aggressively mediocre for the four years before that. It has been well over a full class of students since the football program was exciting; you even have long-time, relatively die hard fans on here who say they have better things to do on Saturday then spend a day watching us get our teeth kicked in.

This thread is looking at that situation and going: "Why aren't people interested in our program and traditions? It can't be because we suck. It's got to be the foreigners! No wait, it's got to be the women! Actually, the problem is with the entire ööööing nation. We've become a nation of introverts! Kids don't know how to interact with each other in a society!"

Sometimes it's good to take a step back and think about what you would say if you weren't a fan of your school. In this case, the answer to "Our football team is 9-20 over the past three seasons, why aren't more people interested in our football traditions?" is simply "Your football team is 9-20 over the past three seasons."

Start winning and interest will go way up. Once we're drawing 50k a game because we're winning, you can argue about whether we're not getting that last 5k because of foreigners or women or whatever other group of people you want to blame.

It wasn’t just about football fandom. The question was why is stuff like the homecoming parade suffering. And maybe I used the wrong word in foreigners when I responded, but Tech is absolutely not what it was back in the day when it was turning out engineers who would work in Georgia and the southeast. You are right to say that it’s not “foreigners” but people who could give a öööö about sports in general or even Tech beyond its ability to give them a degree. If they do care about sports it’s going to be soccer, cricket, or ping pong and not football. And not Reck Parades, Mini 500s, Cake Races, or RAT Caps.

 

[Supersize that order mutt]

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?

That was Dodd's idea. He just supported what Dodd stupidly wanted to do. Don't blame him; blame Dodd.

 

[Supersize that order mutt]

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

In the 30s or 40s, Tech had a school of commerce, but the BOR took it from us because it gave us an advantage over the mutts, which they just couldn't allow to happen. That school eventually morphed into Ga State. Again, that was not the fault of the Tech administration; that wa mutt politicians' fault.

 

[andrew]

It wasn’t just about football fandom. The question was why is stuff like the homecoming parade suffering. And maybe I used the wrong word in foreigners when I responded, but Tech is absolutely not what it was back in the day when it was turning out engineers who would work in Georgia and the southeast. You are right to say that it’s not “foreigners” but people who could give a öööö about sports in general or even Tech beyond its ability to give them a degree. If they do care about sports it’s going to be soccer, cricket, or ping pong and not football. And not Reck Parades, Mini 500s, Cake Races, or RAT Caps.

I agree that the academic profile of the school (and thus the makeup of the student body) has changed almost completely over the past several decades. It's now much less regional and attracts students who are much more focused on academics and "nerdy" things in their personal lives. Even students who are very interested in football will often leave GA for higher paying jobs elsewhere upon graduation because the Tech name commands a lot of respect in cities like NYC and SF, as well as more local places like Charlotte or RTP. A Tech grad is rarely left wanting for opportunities theses days.

Still, I think if we start winning you will see participation in all the stuff you mentioned go up a lot. Homecoming in general is absolutely tied to the football program -- there's a reason the parade takes place before the football game each year.

True, it will never be what it once was, due both to the changing nature of the school and the plethora of entertainment/socialization options available now (we'll never see a TV program approach M*A*S*H's viewership numbers again either), but winning consistently would make it a whole lot more popular than it is now.

 

[Chattanooga Jacket]

This 1971 Pontiac LeMans Wagon was the family car until I drove it for one year in high school. My dad then donated it to his frat in 1983-1984 for their homecoming entry. We were expecting to see it dismantled and turned into some weird contraption. Instead, it came screaming down the road just like the Death Mobile from Animal House.

Here’s a photo of the Deathmobile behind the frat house.

 

[Supersize that order mutt]

Check that!

Pat Crecine was very Pro Athletics and was somewhat controversial and hated by a lot of "old guard" Alums (and not the gorgeous kind like Charlize Theron, Netflix Movie reference).

During Crecine's tenure we won a MNC in FB and made the Final Four in MBB in maybe a 12-15 month time frame, we might have made the CWS in Baseball too, but my memory isn't clear on that, but we did make the NCAA Baseball Playoffs like every year back then.

How can you forget Crecine?

I actually considered Crecine to be a good guy, but did he really have anything to do with Tech's NC or the Final Four or our success in baseball? He obviously didn't hurt us, but just how did he help us? If my memory is correct, Petit was also a pretty decent Pres. Maybe it was because I was in school at the time, but I ALWAYS saw Harrison at every athletic event I attended. Admittedly, I also saw Petersen at all similar events, but I just never had the feeling that that was anything more than feel good appearances.

 

[ATLNative]

This 1971 Pontiac LeMans Wagon was the family car until I drove it for one year in high school. My dad then donated it to his frat in 1983-1984 for their homecoming entry. We were expecting to see it dismantled and turned into some weird contraption. Instead, it came screaming down the road just like the Death Mobile from Animal House.

This is what I would hope to see Tech students doing. This is great stuff.

 

[DinnerJacket]

This 1971 Pontiac LeMans Wagon was the family car until I drove it for one year in high school. My dad then donated it to his frat in 1983-1984 for their homecoming entry. We were expecting to see it dismantled and turned into some weird contraption. Instead, it came screaming down the road just like the Death Mobile from Animal House.

Now take a picture this Saturday from the exact same vantage point and angle. My money is you will not see the sidewalk near as populated as this picture either.

 

[Supersize that order mutt]

Now take a picture this Saturday from the exact same vantage point and angle. My money is you will not see the sidewalk near as populated as this picture either.

Well, for one thing, a noon start (as almost all of our HC games have been lately) means the parade will be around 8AM, and it is far less likely that many will be in attendance. TV has ruined homecoming.

 

[CiraldoForever]

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).
.
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."

Thank you for sharing that. I enjoyed reading that article very much.

I remember going to many homecoming games at Grant Field. Remember how the PA announcer would always say, "Here are the names of each Tech player's dates and their escorts for today's game."

All Georgia Tech fans have a lot to be thankful for.

 

[PressManCoverage]

That was Dodd's idea. He just supported what Dodd stupidly wanted to do. Don't blame him; blame Dodd.

Uh, not so fast my friend.

He is ultimately and indirectly Dodd's Boss, he should've pushed back or threatened to fire Dodd or something other than following Dodd over the cliff and into the CFB abyss, the same abyss we find ourselves in to this very day.

The FB Coach doesn't have more Power than the School Prez because " we're GT , we've never been a FB Factory", remember, at our special school FB knows its place, but in this instance where Academics is supposed to rule (School Prez), in this instance FB ruled (Dodd).

Seems like a lot of finding the convenient narrative to fit the situation

 

[PressManCoverage]

I agree that the academic profile of the school (and thus the makeup of the student body) has changed almost completely over the past several decades. It's now much less regional and attracts students who are much more focused on academics and "nerdy" things in their personal lives. Even students who are very interested in football will often leave GA for higher paying jobs elsewhere upon graduation because the Tech name commands a lot of respect in cities like NYC and SF, as well as more local places like Charlotte or RTP. A Tech grad is rarely left wanting for opportunities theses days.

Still, I think if we start winning you will see participation in all the stuff you mentioned go up a lot. Homecoming in general is absolutely tied to the football program -- there's a reason the parade takes place before the football game each year.

True, it will never be what it once was, due both to the changing nature of the school and the plethora of entertainment/socialization options available now (we'll never see a TV program approach M*A*S*H's viewership numbers again either), but winning consistently would make it a whole lot more popular than it is now.

ND is an Academic School with a great National Reputation and their FB is popular with their Student Body, Duke Basketball had been popular for a very long time, and I'm talking about before Coach K was there.

In the Deep South , a CFB crazed City like Atlanta, GT FB should be more popular, even if we are a College with weak Alumni support, in an Area of almost 7 million people in the 13 County MSA, finding 25K Sidewalk Fans to help us achieve sellouts should be pretty easy.

Why don't we market GT FB to Parents & Sons from all the Youth FB Leagues, even Daughters & Parents that are involved in cheering in Youth FB, not to mention use some Cupcake games to Market discount Tickets to HS Players and Parents, had we done things like this 25-30 years ago, our total numbers of Sidewalk Fans might be a lot higher than it is now, some might have become Lifelong GT Fans

Cupcake Games and Games vs Cuse, Dook, Wake and other games that don't sellout we should have been doing things like this decades ago.

We will never build Sidewalk Alumni like a ND does, for some reason our Alums don't play well with others and like to tell the rest of the World how fancy their Degree is and how many Calculus classes they took, hard to rely on those types to spread the Gospel of GT FB, so we have to find a way to build up the popularity of GT FB among Metro ATL residents