So yesterday I’m pulling out of a parking deck and I’m behind a white pickup truck. As I get close, I notice the license plate on the truck: ‘GATA’.
“Cool,” I say to myself. Then I get even closer and notice that the truck’s owner has a frame around the license which says (I kid you not): ‘2004 Auburn Tigers – National Champions’. And there’s some additional Auburn bling decorating the vehicle to advertise the owner’s loyalties, but no Georgia paraphernalia anywhere.
So what’s the deelio here, I wonder? Did this guy manage to grab a specialty license plate that spites every Dawg fan in the state (and, yes, it was a state of Georgia plate)? Does ‘GATA’ have some particular meaning to Auburn fans of which I was unaware? Did he misspell something on his tag application?
I don’t know whether to be offended or amused. Comments?
Get The Picture 
Hmmm….let’s see. Auburn has copied several of our traditions (although, they will erroneously claim that they did them first, because that is very important to them).
Most folks who go to Auburn are those who could not get into UGA.
The man who invented ‘GATA’ is an Auburn man.
If you queried the guy, he would probably explain that Erk actually invented the saying while he was a 3-sport star on the Plains, and that it has been Auburn’s mantra since then. UGA only stole the saying in the ’70’s, and it is really Auburn’s tradition. He is simply setting out to make things right by explaining his tag to everyone he sees.
BTW, have you ever seen a vehicle with AU flair, that does not have AT LEAST two pieces? Living in GA, of course, the UGA gear is totally cliche and one can instantly recognize an alum’s decoration versus a casual fan, but the AU cars here never have only one piece.
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It stands for “Gay Auburn Thrusting Action”.
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Not that there is anything wrong with that…..
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but what about truck nutz? i assume there were truck nutz. . . .
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Searles
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speaking of Erk (who is said to have coined GATA in his first year at UGA after seeing “GTAA” stenciled on everything that wasnt nailed down at Tech (“Let’s flip a T and an A and Get After Their Asses!”), he and Coach Dooley at least had enough sense to get the hell out of Auburn.
I once heard Erk speak at a Bulldog Club gig. He related that he once told the following joke at a football gathering: “How do you get to Auburn from Athens? You go west until you smell it, then south until you step in it.” Cue huge laughter.
But Erk wasn’t done. He added, “A lady came up to me afterwards who was an Auburn grad. She said, ‘Erk, you shouldn’t be telling jokes like that. You have several varsity letters from Auburn!’ I told her, “Yes, ma’am, I sure do, but every dadgum one of them was misspelled.”
Imagine going to a school where Alabama people sneer at your academics. No wonder they’re touchy. It’s a second rate school even by the standards of a second rate state. Does Tech still have more SEC football titles than Auburn?
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I like to think it was more along the lines of “Get Another Tuberville at Auburn.” You know, more of a cry for help.
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