Separated by 70 miles of interstate between Atlanta and Athens Georgia, and founded 100 years apart, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia (UGA) have been rivals since 1893 in more than just football. Competing for everything in the state of Georgia, from potential students and fans to government grants and academic recognition (Georgia Tech is an engineering research university, while UGA is a liberal arts research university). However, it is on the grid where this rivalry stands out.

The dislike for these two schools probably began right after the Civil War when it was decided that a new technology school should be founded. UGA President Patrick Mell then tried to convince lawmakers that the new school should be located next to the main Georgia campus in Athens. Despite his best efforts, the Georgia Institute of Technology was established near the Atlanta city limits in 1885.

It didn’t take long for the first hostilities to start just a few years later, in 1891, mostly over the school colors. UGA’s school magazine stated that the school colors would be gold, black, and crimson. The Georgia football coach felt that gold was too close to yellow, which he felt symbolized cowardice. However, that same year, the Tech student body voted white and gold as the official colors of the school. In their first football game against Auburn, Tech would wear gold on their football uniforms, felt by some as a slap in the face for Georgia. Two years later, after Tech defeated Georgia in their first football game, gold was forever removed from Georgia’s school colors.

That fateful first game took place in Athens on November 4, 1893 with Georgia Tech, then known as the Blacksmiths, winning by a score of 28-6. But it was whoever scored those 4 touchdowns that sparked the rivalry. Leonard Wood was a 33-year-old US Army medic who officially registered as a Georgia Tech student just days before the game. However, being a full-time student, he was eligible to play. This fact upset the Georgia fans as during and after the game they threw rocks and debris at all the Tech players. The next day, an article in the Atlanta Journal, written by an Athens sportswriter, mocked that the Tech’s football team was nothing more than a collection of Atlantans with a few students included.

A rivalry was born.

For the next several years, Georgia Tech’s football program would perform very poorly. As a result, they decided to hire a new coach from another rival school, Clemson. In 1904, John Heisman was paid $2,250 and 30% attendance fees to be the football and baseball coach at Georgia Tech. (NOTE: After retiring as football coach in 1927, he became part of the Manhattan’s Downtown Athletic Club in 1935. After his death in 1936, the club’s trophy for best college football player was renamed the Heisman Trophy). Heisman immediately turned Tech’s football program around with an 8-1-1 in his freshman year. In 1908, the SIAA (Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association) was investigating the recruiting tactics of Georgia alumni. The allegations were not proven, and the SIAA later ruled in Tech’s favor. In his 16 seasons at Georgia Tech, Heisman led the Golden Tornado (as Tech was known) to three undefeated seasons, including a 32-game winning streak and a major 23-6 victory over Georgia. Heisman also led Tech to the highest-scoring football game ever played with a 222-0 win over a totally outmatched Cumberland State in 1916 (too bad it wasn’t Georgia!).

By 1917, with the start of World War I, UGA disbanded its football program as many of its trained students were drafted into the war. Since Atlanta was a military training camp at the time, Tech retained its male students and continued its football program throughout the war. When UGA revived its football program in 1919, they proudly proclaimed “UGA at Argonne” and “TECH at Atlanta” on the parade floats. As a result, Tech severed all sporting ties with UGA, including canceling several Georgia home games at Atlanta’s Grant Field (UGA commonly used Grant Field as its home field). It would not be until 1925, by mutual agreement, that regular season competition would resume.

In 1932, Georgia and Georgia Tech would become 2 of the original 13 members of the SEC, of ​​which UGA remains a member. However, Tech would leave the SEC in 1964 after coach Bobby Dodd started a feud with Alabama’s Bear Bryant (the result of a low blow by an Alabama player that ended a Tech player’s career and the refusal of Bryant to discipline the athlete). There were also concerns about scholarship awards, questionable recruiting tactics and the treatment of student athletes that led to Tech’s departure from the SEC. However, Dodd understood the importance of a rivalry and would lead the Yellow Jackets to 8 straight wins (1946 – 1954) and outscored Georgia 176 – 39 in those games. This remains the longest streak by either team in the rivalry.

Several years later, Tech would try to re-enter the SEC, but his application was denied, largely due to opposition from Georgia. With no league to compete in, Tech would found the Metro Conference, for all of its intercollegiate sports except football. Like Notre Dame, Tech would compete as an independent for the next 15 years, until finally joining the ACC in 1979, the conference in which it still completes today.

Not content with simply antagonizing each other on the football pitch, both institutions have also adapted their fight songs to the rivalry. Tech’s Ramblin Wreck contains the line “To hell with Georgia”, and “Up With the White and Gold” is immediately followed by the lyrics “Down with the Red and Black” and later “Drop the Battle Ax on Georgia’s Head “. The Georgia fight song, “Glory Glory,” technically unchanged since it was first published in 1909, officially ends with GEORGIA. However, the student body has modified the closing lyrics to “and to hell with Georgia Tech!”