Has this been forgotten to history, or am I living in an alternate reality?
Ok, it's Thursday, so I should really probably start getting motivated about the Tech game, though even Jujdog now agrees that there is no chance that the Bulldogs will emerge victorious 2 days hence in Atlanta.
It doesn't take too much digging to learn about all the tomfoolery that has occurred off the field between the respective fanbases (and student bodies) of these two schools. One of my favorite "quid pro quo" incidents, however, happened around the time I first matriculated in Athens (well, actually a year or two before)... and I simply cannot find much mention of it at all.
The Tech side of the prank is at least well-documented for posterity... which is to say, Lewis Grizzard wrote a column about it. During the 1992 season, Georgia painted a logo at midfield for the first time possibly ever, but certainly in my lifetime. The logo commemorated the 100th season of Georgia football, and looked something like this:
(Note that I had to take this picture myself from the cover jacket of an old VHS tape and upload it to the interwebs. Apparently nobody on the entire internet has any interest in posting pictures of things that were associated with Georgia football back in the 1990's... not that I blame them)
At halftime of the 1992 Georgia Tech game, the Yellow Band from Golden Tornado Land took the field and covered the new Georgia logo with a green tarp, on which was painted the Tech "GT" logo. The seranade of boos was loud and immediate, and lasted throughout the entire halftime show. (It's the first, and still only, time that I have ever heard a band drowned out for the entirety of a halftime show by boos... and that includes the old Virginia "pep band" that was so monstrously pathetic and offensive. You old-timers that went to all those UGA/UVA bowl games know what I'm talking about. Even the UVA fans used to boo those guys.) There was actually some entertaining back and forth exchange when the Georgia cheerleaders ran out onto the field and ripped the logo off, followed by a few nerds replacing the logo shortly afterwards. Nevertheless, it has remained an indelible image in my mind of the rivalry.
Not willing to be out-pranked, the Redcoat Band had been planning a similar gesture in 1993, but was sternly warned not to do so by the presidents powers that be. So, instead, every Redcoat Band member very discreetly took a red pom-pom with them to the game and stuck it in their uniform somewhere. Then, at the end of the "spell Georgia cheer," they simultaneously dropped the pom-poms at the previously-agreed-upon time. Thus, as the band marched off the field, a group of about 300 pom-poms was left spelling "G-E-O-R-G-I-A" over about a 60-yard area. This, also, was not incredibly popular with the 50% of the crowd that were Tech fans, as you might imagine.
Alas, however... after many long hours minutes seconds minutes of searching, I have not been able to find any pictures of either of those days on the intertubes. I mean, did people not take cameras to the football game back in those days? Those little Kodak disposable cameras existed back then... I mean, come on, people. Preserve important things like this so they will be remembered by history!
Does anyone else remember this exchange, or am I somehow remembering events from that "1985A" timeline from Back to the Future?
Update: At the last minute, my search-fu finally met with a limited measure of success, and I discovered this video footage of the 1992 Tech Band prank. The cheerleader/nerd interaction starts at the 2:58 mark. Still no word on the redcoat retribution, though.
16 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
tech sucks
that was almost a band/pep squad brawl at halftime – wow. i think i was at the game, but missed halftime
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. ~ Albert Einstein
Just watching that got me pumped up enough to look forward to the game. God I hate Tech. Family tradition had me in Destin last year to watch it. This year I’ll be home just in time to catch the kickoff. While I love sitting on the balcony with my beer and cursing whoever we’re playing, I’ve been dreading the drive home, rushing back to catch the kickoff and immediate implosion of special teams. Deep breath…will..be…ok.
I was there . . .
. . . and not one note was heard. The chorus of "boo"s lasted throughout halftime, and deservedly so.
It’s terrible that the Redcoats were told not to exact retribution the following year. There’s a reason why baseball umpires let both pitchers bean one batter before warning both teams.
Georgia Tech is like an out-of-work teacher . . . no class.
Go 'Dawgs!
No class?
The real classless act in that video was the cheerleaders interrupting the band’s performance. Each team’s band gets the field for a set amount of time at the half.
I’m sure someone goaded them into doing it, since it’s not the kind of initiative I normally associate with cheerleaders (at any school).
“Retribution”? Don’t you think you are taking this a bit too seriously? Didn’t you pull any pranks while you were in school?
You know that plane that flew over Sanford Stadium dragging the “TO HELL WITH GEORGIA” banner? We did that first in 1978. It wasn’t my idea, but I chipped in. We paid for one pass, but the pilot enjoyed the reaction so much that he flew it around three times.
1978? Aren’t you a little old to be living in your Mom’s basement? Then again, I’m sure she needs foot lotion every other day. Good to have you close by.
lol…like i’m one to talk sitting on a beach by myself tonight. It’s all fun and games until Jasper Sanks fumbles…or our safeties forget they have arms.
You mean until Jasper Sanks doesn’t fumble…
Crap, I’m going to need more Johnnie Walker to get me through Saturday. It’s a night game, you know…
by vineyarddawg on Nov 27, 2009 2:10 AM EST up reply actions
Now that's original
How can one compete with wit like that? Without feeling guilty about taking advantage of the disadvantaged?
Next you’ll make some comment about attendance at Grant Field, then follow it up with a reference to the Jasper Sanks fumble.
When you come up with an original thought let me know.
Oh, come on, now, CraigT!
I think it’s more than fair to revoke the “set amount of time” a visiting band gets if that band pulls a stunt like this.
Leaving aside your rhetorical questions about retribution (with respect to which I hope it is clear that the alternative to “tit for tat” is “thank you, sir, may I have another”), I think it’s fair to say that, if I’m invited to your home for Christmas and I cover over all of your Christian symbols with devil-worshiping totems when I arrive, I’ve given offense deliberately and worn out my welcome.
Frankly, I think we’re way too tolerant of other teams’ bands. If it were up to me, neither Georgia Tech nor Auburn would ever be allowed to bring a band to Sanford Stadium again.
Go 'Dawgs!
Oh, you come on
It was the Tech band’s performance, and they used a banner for it. It’s not as if they were leaving the banner there, painting something on the surface, or planting grass seeds. It was part of the performance.
You know very well that your analogy is insulting, inappropriate, and inverted. The logo on the field is nothing more than a sign, and the hedges are nothing more than shrubbery. If you want to bring religion into this, then treating the hedges and the logo in the middle of the field as sacred objects sounds a lot like idolatry.
You have a huge blind spot in your sense of humor, Kyle.
Yeah, I do . . .
. . . it covers things that aren’t funny.
I’ll believe y’all believe “the hedges are nothing more than shrubbery” when your fans and players quit committing acts of criminal vandalism against them.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Nov 27, 2009 10:19 PM EST up reply actions
Also . . .
. . . I’m not the one who introduced blasphemy into this rivalry.
I have a son, and I’ll tell you what he doesn’t do; he doesn’t scream for others to be consigned to eternal damnation based upon the universities they attended and the sports teams they support. If he did, I’d punish him for it.
The fact that Georgia Tech fans celebrate that particular disgusting and despicable sacrilege (to the point that the response to the question, “What’s the good word?” isn’t, “To Heaven with Georgia Tech!”) makes any animadversion hurled by a Georgia Tech fan at my religious references in the context of the rivalry an instance of laughably asinine cognitive dissonance at best.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Nov 27, 2009 10:25 PM EST up reply actions
… he doesn’t scream for others to be consigned to eternal damnation based upon the universities they attended and the sports teams they support.
I’ve gotta say that “to hell with” anything shouldn’t be taken literally, just as “f—-” anything shouldn’t.
If the Daughter of the Red and Black (who, when she dances, is a dream: reg’lar sugar-coated cream) can’t hold herself in check when she yells, “To hell with Tech!” then I see no reason to consider it a blasphemous religious statement.

by 
















