The is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that play for the
Georgia Institute Of Technology in
Atlanta, Georgia . The teams have also been nicknamed the
Ramblin' Wreck , Engineers, Blacksmiths, and Golden Tornado. There are 8 men's and 7 women's teams that compete in the
NCAA Division I athletics and
Division I-A football. Georgia Tech is a member of the Coastal Division in the
Atlantic Coast Conference .
The official
School Colors for Georgia Tech are
Old Gold and
White .
Black and
Navy Blue are often used as secondary colors and for
Alternate Jersey s.
The traditional
Rival , in all sports is in-state
University Of Georgia . This rivalry is often referred to as
Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate . There are also rivalries with out-of-state
Auburn and conference foe
Clemson .
The athletic department is run by the
Georgia Tech Athletic Association , a private organization located on campus. The department dedicates about $53 million per year to its sports teams and facilities. Since 2005, the
Athletic Director of Georgia Tech has been
Dan Radakovich .
1 Most athletic teams have on-campus facilities for competition, including
Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field for
Football , the
Alexander Memorial Coliseum at Cremins' Court for men’s and women’s
Basketball , and
Russ Chandler Stadium for
Baseball .
at Historic Grant Field]]
See Also: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football
See Also: 2006 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team
2007 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team
The football team is traditionally the most popular at the Institute. The games are played at
Bobby Dodd Stadium At Historic Grant Field or simply ''The Flats'', which is the oldest on-campus stadium in division I-A football. The stadium was expanded in recent years, increasing the maximum capacity to 55,000.
Georgia Tech plays an Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division schedule in addition to yearly cross divisional games against Clemson
2 and two other Atlantic Division teams. In addition, the team has a yearly out-of-conference meeting with Georgia at the end of the season known as
Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate .
The football team is in the top 20 winningest Division I-A programs and was the first team to win all four of the historical big four bowls - the Orange (1940), Sugar (1944), Cotton (1955) and Rose (1929). Georgia Tech has won four national titles in the years 1917 going 9-0 under
John Heisman outscoring opponents 419-17, 1928 going 10-0 under
William Alexander outscoring opponents 221-47, 1952 going 12-0 under
Bobby Dodd outscoring opponents 325-59, and 1990 going 11-0-1 under
Bobby Ross outscoring opponents 379-186.
3
The Yellow Jackets have won a total of 15 conference titles. They won 5 SIAA titles in '16, '17, '18, '20, and '21; 3 Southern Conference titles in '22, '27, and '28; 5 SEC titles in '39, '43, '44, '51, '52, and the 1990 and 1998 ACC championships along with the 2006 ACC Coastal Division Championship. The team has played in 35 bowl games, posting a record of 22-13. The resulting win percentage of 0.629 is currently the second-highest among teams with over 20 bowl appearances.
The current coach is former
Dallas Cowboys head coach
Chan Gailey . In five seasons, Chan Gailey has posted a 37-27 record, 5 straight bowl berths, and a 2-3 record in bowl games. Chan's 5 straight bowl appearances have the Jackets at 10 in a row overall, an active streak tied for 5th longest in the nation.
4
Three Jacket players were named to the ACC 50th Anniversary Team in 2002:
Marco Coleman , OLB; Joe Hamilton, QB; and Ken Swilling, DB.
Some notable and more recent Georgia Tech football players are three-time All-American
Calvin Johnson ,
Keith Brooking ,
Joe Burns ,
Marco Coleman ,
Joe Hamilton ,
Tony Hollings ,
Dorsey Levens , and
Arizona Cardinals head coach
Ken Whisenhunt .
See Also: List of Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Starting Quarterbacks
List of Georgia Institute of Technology alumni#American football
See Also: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball
]]
Georgia Tech features a strong and popular basketball program. The team plays its home games in
Alexander Memorial Coliseum .
Under the tenure of
Bobby Cremins Georgia Tech established itself as a national force in basketball. Bobby Cremins led his team to the first ACC tournament victory in school history in 1985 and in 1990 he took Georgia Tech to the school's first
Final Four appearance ever. Cremins retired from Georgia Tech in 2000 with the school's best coaching win percentage.
Paul Hewitt is the current head for Georgia Tech. He helped to revitalize a stagnant program and Georgia Tech experienced a
Cinderella Season in 2004, earning the school's second ever berth in a National Title Game in any sport. The 2003-2004 team won the Pre-Season NIT tournament, ended Duke's 41 game home-winning streak, and finished its season losing by only 9 points in the National Title game to
UCONN .
Some notable and more recent Georgia Tech basketball players are
Javaris Crittenton ,
Thaddeus Young ,
Stephon Marbury ,
Kenny Anderson ,
Travis Best ,
Chris Bosh ,
Jarrett Jack ,
Mark Price , and
John Salley .
See Also: 2006-07 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball team
]]
Baseball is a very successful sport at Georgia Tech. The baseball team makes its home at
Russ Chandler Stadium and is one of the premier baseball teams in the
NCAA . Georgia Tech baseball is notable for its high-scoring offenses and stout defenses.
The team's success is guided by head coach
Danny Hall . Danny Hall has coached Tech for 13 seasons and has posted 579 wins over that span. He has led Georgia Tech to 12 years of NCAA regional play and its only three
College World Series appearances in 1994, 2002, and 2006.
The baseball team, under Hall, has become an annual contender for the ACC regular season and tournament titles winning each four and three times respectively.
Some notable and more recent Georgia Tech baseball players are
Kevin Brown ,
Nomar Garciaparra ,
Matt Murton ,
Jay Payton ,
Mark Teixeira , and
Jason Varitek .
5
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's golf team is one of the most consistent Yellow Jacket teams. The men's golf team has made the NCAA Championship round nine straight years under twelfth-year head coach
Bruce Heppler . In 2005, the program was rated by Golf Magazine as the #1 collegiate golf program in the country.
Some notable and more recent Georgia Tech golfers are
David Duval and
Stewart Cink .
Georgia Tech Women's Volleyball is one of the newer additions to Georgia Tech's athletic department, having only been started in the past twenty years. Despite the program's youth, it has been a dominant force in the ACC.
Bond Shymansky , in four seasons, has shaped Georgia Tech volleyball into a powerful, perennial ACC title contender and NCAA tournament qualifier. Tech has been in the NCAA tournament three out of the past four years and has set several school records for victories in a season, consecutive ACC victories, and consecutive victories.
See Also: 2006-07 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets women's tennis team
Georgia Tech has both men's and women's
Tennis teams. The women's tennis team became the first
NCAA National Champion in Georgia Tech team sports history by winning 4-2 over
UCLA in Athens, Georgia on
May 22 ,
2007 .
67 The 2007
National Championship team was coached by
Bryan Shelton . Women's tennis has won the last three consecutive ACC titles as well.
The men's team has won six conference titles since 1918 (one in the
SIAA , two in the
SoConn , and three in the
SEC ). The men's tennis team is currently coached by
Kenny Thorne .
8
See Also: Glenn Field (softball)
Georgia Tech also fields women's basketball,
Softball , men and women's
Track & Field ,
9 men and women's
Swimming &
Diving , men and women's
Cross Country , and assorted club sports.
The non-NCAA sanctioned club sports include but are not limited to
Crew ,
Cricket ,
Cycling ,
Equestrian ,
Fencing ,
Field Hockey ,
Gymnastics ,
Ice Hockey ,
Kayaking ,
Lacrosse ,
Paintball ,
Roller Hockey ,
Rowing ,
Rugby ,
Sailing ,
Skydiving ,
Triathlon ,
Ultimate ,
Water Polo , and
Wrestling .
See Also: Georgia Tech traditions
See Also: Buzz (mascot)
Ramblin' Wreck
Costumed in
Plush to look like a
Yellow Jacket , the official
Mascot of Georgia Tech is . Buzz enters the football games at the sound of swarming yellow jackets and proceeds to do a flip on the fifty yard line GT logo. He then bull rushes the goal post and has been known to knock it out of alignment before football games. Buzz is also notorious for crowd surfing and general debauchery amongst Tech and rival fans.
The was the first official mascot of Georgia Tech. It is a 1930
Ford Model A Sports Coupe. The Wreck has led the football team onto the field every home game since 1961. The Wreck features a gold and white paint job, two gold flags emblazoned with the words "To Hell With Georgia" and "Give 'Em Hell Tech", and a white soft top. The Wreck is maintained by the '''Ramblin' Reck Club''', a selective student leadership organization on campus.
The Ramblin' Reck Club is charged with upholding all school traditions and creating new traditions such as the Swarm. The Swarm is a 900 member strong spirit group seated along the north end zone or on the court at basketball games. This is the group that typically features
Body Painting , organized
Chants , and general
Fanaticism .
The marching band that performs at halftime and after big plays during the football season is clad in all white and sits next to Swarm at football games providing a dichotomy of white and gold in the North End Zone. The band plays the fight songs ''
Ramblin' Wreck From Georgia Tech " and "Up With the White and Gold'' after every football score and between every basketball period. At the end of a rendition of either fight song, there is a series of drum beats followed by the cheer "Go Jackets" three times (each time followed by a second cheer of "bust their ass"), then a different drum beat and the cheer "Fight, Win, Drink, Get Naked!" The official cheer only includes "Fight, Win" but all present other than the band and cheerleaders will yell the extended version.
It is also tradition for the band to play the Budweiser
Anthem ''When You Say Budweiser'' after the third quarter of football and during the second-to-last official timeout of every basketball game. During the "Budweiser Song", all of the fans in the stadium alternate bending their knees and standing up straight.
Other notable band songs are
Michael Jackson 's ''
Thriller '' for half-time at the Thrillerdome,
Ludacris ' ''Move Bitch'' for large gains in football,
Outkast 's ''
Hey Ya! '' during television timeouts and occasionally
Zombie Nation's "Kernkraft 400".
The band is also the primary student organization on campus that upholds the tradition of RAT caps, wherein band freshman wear the traditional yellow cap at all band events.
Another popular chant is called the Good Word and it begins with asking, "What's the Good Word?" The response from all Tech faithful is, "To Hell With Georgia." The same question is asked three times and then the followup is asked, "How 'bout them dogs?" And everyone yells, "Piss on 'em."
Oh, well, it's up with the White and Gold,
Down with the Red and Black,
Georgia Tech is out for a victory.
We will drop our battle-axe on Georgia's head,
When we meet her our team is sure to beat her.
Down on the farm there will be no sound
Till our bow-wows rip through the air;
When the battle is over Georgia's team will be found
With the Yellow Jackets swarming 'round!
I'm a ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech
And a hell of an engineer--
A helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, hell of an engineer,
Like all the jolly good fellows,
I drink my whiskey clear.
I'm a ramblin' wreck from Georgia Tech
And a hell of an engineer.
Oh! If I had a daughter, sir,
I'd dress her in White and Gold.
And put her on the campus
To cheer the Brave and Bold.
But if I had a son, sir,
I'll tell you what he'd do
He would yell, "To Hell with Georgia,"
like his daddy used to do.
Oh! I wish I had a barrel of rum
And sugar three thousand pounds,
A college bell to put it in
And a clapper to stir it round,
I'd drink to all good fellows
Who come from far and near.
I'm a ramblin', gamblin',
Hell of an engineer! Hey!
Oh, sons of Tech, arise, behold!
The banner as it reigns supreme,
For from on high the White and Gold
Waves in its triumphant gleam.
The spirit of the cheering throng
Resounds with joy revealing
A brotherhood in praise and song,
In memory of the days gone by.
Oh, Scion of the Southland!
In our hearts you shall forever fly.
We cherish thoughts so dear for thee,
Oh, Alma Mater, in our prayer.
We plead for you in victory,
And in the victory we share!
But when the battle seems in vain
Our spirits never falter,
We're ever one in joy or pain,
And our union is a lasting bond.
Oh! May we be united.
Till the victory of life is won.
