Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets History

GEORGIA TECH TRADITIONS

It was September 30, 1961. The opponent was Rice University for the home opener. For the first time, the official Rambling Wreck car was unveiled to 43,501 fans at Grant Field, leading the Georgia Tech football team onto the field. It has happened at every home game since.

The event did not establish a new tradition at Tech, but it cemented one. The vehicle, a restored 1930 Model A Ford Sport Coupe, was Tech's first official Rambling Wreck car, and it was an instant success.

Since that time, the Rambling Wreck car has joined a much older tradition-the Yellow Jacket-as the official school mascot.The current Wreck is the latest in a line of distinctive white and gold cars on campus. While there was no official Rambling Wreck before 1961, several fraternities took turns driving various such vehicles.

The first reference to a Rambling Wreck vehicle on campus was applied to a 1914 Ford owned by Floyd Field, Dean of Men. The Technique student newspaper was the first published reference to the car as the "Rambling Wreck" in 1927. The paper spoke out against Field when he considered trading the car that year, but he disposed of it anyway.

The Technique, however, continued the tradition by sponsoring a yearly collegiate auto race from Atlanta to Athens, beginning in 1929, known as the "Old Ford" race or the "Flying Flivver" race. As the years went by, though, the race became too dangerous, and it was discontinued.

In its place, the school instituted the familiar Rambling Wreck Parade, which is still held every year on the campus during Homecoming Weekend festivities. The event challenges students to produce outlandish "mechanical monstrosities" capable of transversing a short course on campus.

Tech officials decided in the late 1950s that the school needed an official car that would be known forever as the Rambling Wreck.

Vice President and Dean of Students James Dull began a search for a pre-1940 vintage model, and finally found one-parked in front of his apartment building. The owner, Capt. Ted J. Johnson, a Delta Air Lines pilot, had just finished restoring the 1930 Ford Cabriolet Sport Coupe, which he intended to give to his son as a gift.

Johnson decided to let Tech have the car for $1,000 in May, 1961. He later returned the purchase price of the Wreck to the Athletic Association in the form of a contribution to the Alexander-Tharpe Fund, fulfilling a desire to go on record as having given the Rambling Wreck to Georgia Tech. The Wreck was completely restored again in 1982, under the supervision of Tech alumnus Pete George, manager of the Ford assembly plant in Hapeville, Georgia.

White & Gold

In the fall of 1891, before Georgia Tech organized a football team of its own, a game was scheduled between Auburn and Georgia. Due to the rivalry established in baseball games between Tech and Georgia (which is still strong after more than 100 years), the Tech students were invited to the game to cheer, of course, for Auburn.

At a mass meeting, the students appointed a committee to recommend colors to be worn and cheers to be used at the game. The committee suggested white and gold, and about 200 students attended the game wearing school colors for the first time.

In 1893, when Tech's football team played its first official game against Georgia, a group of young women from the Lucy Cobb Institute for Girls, dressed in white and gold, attended the game to cheer for Tech. These ladies were some of the earliest Tech supporters to show their allegiance by wearing the now-traditional colors.

The Yellow Jacket

The Yellow Jacket nickname and mascot are two of the most beloved trademarks of Georgia Tech athletic teams, but many conflicting accounts exist as to the origins and beginnings of the Yellow Jacket. One thing that is clear, however, is that the nickname did not grow out of the familiar six-legged insect, but instead that the insect mascot, known as "Buzz," grew out of the nickname.

As far as can be determined, the first reference to Tech students as "Yellowjackets" appeared in the Atlanta Constitution in 1905 and came into common usage at that time.

Historians say the name, spelled as one word, was first used to describe supporters who attended Tech athletic events, dressed in yellow coats and jackets. The actual mascot was conceived at a later date, still undetermined.

Other common nicknames which have applied to Georgia Tech teams include Engineers, which is still used by some writers; the Techs, the first known nickname which was phased out sometime around 1910; and the Blacksmiths, which was common between 1902 and 1904 and is thought to be an invention of sportswriters at the time.

The Golden Tornado is another former nickname thought to be created by sportswriters when John Heisman led Tech to its first national championship in football in 1917. Tech was the first team from the South to earn the honor bestowed by the International News Service, and any team thereafter which approached the same level of excellence was referred to as the Golden Tornado. The nickname was used as late as 1929, when Tech defeated California in the Rose Bowl.