Clean old fashioned hate? Where in the hell did that come from? There never has been nor shall there ever be anything “clean” about it! Beginning in 1893 the first time the teams met in Athens, the Dogs lost 28-6 and the red and black fans were so pissed they chased the Tech football team all the way back to the train they came in on.
What some may not know is that UGA shut down its football program for two years during World War I (1917-1918) to send their boys overseas to fight, while the “North Avenue Slide Rule Jockeys” stayed at home and continued to play football. The resulting insults exchanged for two years, included Tech fans calling UGA “Yellow” for being too “Chicken” to field a team and Dog fans calling Georgia Tech “Classless” for continuing to play games while UGA’s boy’s blood was being spilled over seas.
The hatred reached fever pitch when Georgia started playing again in 1919, and its student body put on a parade to celebrate its return to football. A float in the parade had a plywood World War I tank with a sign that read “1917 Georgia in France 1918”, and behind it was a cut out of the Rambling Wreck with a sign that read “Tech in Atlanta 1917-1918.” It was meant as an obvious slap in the face to Tech. The AD from Tech demanded an apology from UGA, and the Georgia AD ignored the demand. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution fueled the situation by running an editorial stating that “if the boys can’t agree to conduct their sports in a . . . sportsmanlike manner – then it is time to sever athletic relations . . .” The result? UGA and Tech quit playing each other for six years and did not resume until 1925.
In the series Georgia has dominated except from 1949-1956 when Tech won eight straight. Since the “The Draught” the Dawgs are 38-15, including two seven game streaks from 1991-1997 and 2001-2007. UGA lost a “shoot out” in 2008, but then we ran all over them with our backs for a win last year.
Your writer has had an epiphany as he is watching Alabama blow out Auburn in the first half. The Dawgs will not only win on Saturday, but we will blow out the Jackets by a minimum of three touchdowns. Final score Georgia 52 Georgia Tech 31. Oh, and by the way, my Techie friends (NOT!) if that is not enough to get your juices going, how about this: YOU ARE A BUNCH OF “SLIDE-RULE NERDS” WITH A STUPID BUG FOR A MASCOT, AND YOUR MOTHER WEARS ARMY BOOTS! so there! Clean old fashioned hate? I don’t think so! Dirty old fashioned hate? You bet! (source of all historical facts referenced in this blog: 100 Things Bulldogs Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Jon Nelson, Publisher: Triumph Books)
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By: Dawgman1973 (Gary K.) Lead-Blogger “Dawn of the Dawg”