Those of you who argue that the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry isn’t overly relevant have some support from a most unlikely source.
“When I played for the legendary Bobby Dodd, our biggest game of the year at Georgia Tech was not the University of Georgia,” former Yellow Jackets center and head coach Bill Curry said. “Our biggest game was the Vols, and you could just feel that from him. It was a very big game, and it was a very big rivalry.”
Yeah, the Georgia Tech-Tennessee rivalry, a 43-game series interrupted by a 35-year hiatus and another 30-year one, is something you can just feel. Bill Curry sounds righteous about that.
Of course, he could just be full of shit. Then again, maybe that’s the real reason he left Tech for Alabama. At least ‘Bama manages to keep playing Tennessee.
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I guess tech hasn’t sold out of their ticket allotment and needed to trot out Curry. Maybe the tech ticket office could offer a Coke and hot dog deal for the remaining tickets in MBS.
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Pretty said they would trot out an Alum who sold out to the team that ran Dodd out of the SEC. Hope the Vols are singing Rocky Top all night.
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It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not all together incorrect. Remember, Dodd played and starred at UT. And in most of the 50s Tech and Tennessee were the two powers in the SEC and nationally, while the Dawgs were going through the worst decade in our football history. I remember all too well when my Dad taught ROTC at Tech, and Bill Curry was one of his cadets, that Tennessee and Bama were definitely bigger games. Theron Sapp started to change that and Vince Dooley permanently changed it.
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I agree, he isn’t totally wrong. Not only because Dodd played at TN and likely did target them more as a top game to win, but also because TN met another very significant qualifier, they were a very meaningful conference opponent. That is what’s missing, and separates that portion of the UGA base who still considers Tech a “top” rival for UGA these days, the game simply isn’t as significant because it has nothing to do with impacting us achieving the major goal, winning the SEC.
Tech can remain a rival, more to some than others,but their status is now further down the list. I want to beat everyone on our schedule, but only for that one specific week of the year does GT become our “major” rival. You can dislike GT fans all year, but that is not any different from Aubie fans, FU fans, and TN fans. And even in this state, there are many more of them than GT fans living around us. You may dislike that annoying one Tech fan at work, or in your neighborhood, more, but there are so few of them they are irrelevant. If you look around you during a total week, of the “other fans” you encounter in your life, what do they amount to in this state, 3%, 5%? And that is in the northern part of their home state! This is not to try and change the hard-core group’s opinion because we can all feel differently but to say, in perspective, that train left the station a long time ago.
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TN was as bad as UGA from 62-64 when Curry was playing. I could see Bama being bigger than UGA but TN is greater Bull… than Dye making all sorts of comments about UGA before UGA plays Bama.
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GT/Bama was real in those days for sure. When I look back at the pre-90s feelings I had, TN wasn’t even on the radar for UGA, nor LSU so much. I am happy what having the divisions has done for giving us TN as a more significant rival, and playing LSU more in the last 20 years has been an improvement as well. Just wish we had 9-10 conference games so we could play West teams more often, the A&M scheduling for UGA is beyond pathetic to me.
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Pre divisions, UGA went long stretches without playing UT or LSU. UGA played Clemson, South Carolina, and possibly UNC more than those 2. It always made the LSU special which is why I don’t have problem with current scheduling. UGA doesn’t have a history with A&M. I had rather play Clemson more often.
UGA did play Bama annually until the mid 60s but still played them 4 times in the 70s.
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‘You can dislike GT fans all year, but that is not any different from Aubie fans, ‘…..Maybe for you. Auburn fans represent Auburn which is a plan B school and thus starts life needing social resuscitation. Auburn is the cheap imitation Zippo made from discarded pork and bean cans. They are inauthentic and consequently overachieve in efforts to certify their worth. They must win at all cost since winning is the universal gauge of value. Hence, they cheat, lie, bribe, steal, fornicate, snort, inject, pimp and overlook discretions to give themselves an edge to win….to the non stop song of ‘prove it, sucka’. GT fans are simply seasonally jealous.
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Bad phrasing on my part Steve, I dislike AU fans more than all others after the 2010 fiasco and how they reacted to the obvious cheating and dirty play. I am with you, Tech fans are not significant for me either, more annoying. I was trying to make the bigger point that competitive fans are all around us but that doesn’t make the game your biggest rival.
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Agree, Bob. Placed in proper historical context, I can see what Curry is saying.
In a similar fashion, Princeton used to be a national power, and Amos Alonzo Stagg had some great Chicago teams.
Back in this century, the nerds are nearly as obsessed with UGA as we are.
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Also, remember the Dawgs played Miss State at Grant Field as a “home” game in the Johnny Griffith was still coaching. We did not draw in Athens and Grant Field at that time had 15K more seats than Sanford Stadium had. Those were some rough years.
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We played MSU at Grant Field in 1959 under Butts and in 1961 under Griffith. Butts also coached us against Texas in 1957 at Grant Field.
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That was then. This is now. Georgia has eclipsed TN as Nerd U’s biggest rival. We need to put a beatdown on them…it’s overdue.
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I know some Tech fans who are happier when Georgia loses than when Tech wins.
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Those individuals are pathetic and probably still wear their stupid rat cap at home when no one is looking.
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some? try most.
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Normaltown:
Oh, I agree. I’m always writing in the comments of any Georgia-Georgia Tech “discussion”:
“What do Georgia fans and Tech fans have in common?
They are all obsessed with Georgia.”
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Very true, if you want to know the injury status or arrests of UGA plays just head over to Tech Blogs/forums.
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In a perfect world neither of those would happen, so the nerds would be miserable all the time instead of just most of the time.
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Agree, I find this amusing at best…mainly, it’s just sad.
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Somebody needs to throw a brick frew his front window. Again.
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Easy to hate UTK….”for long time”. Maybe that is what he is saying.
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True dat.
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Never been able to stand Bill Curry. Didn’t care for him when he was coaching. Liked him less as an announcer.
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The biggest mistake GT ever made was leaving the SEC to go independent. I don’t know all of the background but some of it might have been the GT Alabama game had become a take no prisoners war. GT students sat right behind the visiting team and there was not even a track separating them. They would throw their whiskey bottles at the team bench. Bear famously wore a helmet on the sidelines of one of the Grant field games. I was born and raised in East Point and in the 50’s and early 60’s Alabama was by far GT greatest rival. There was a reason we retired Theron Sapp’s jersey #40 Tech owned us for seven straight years. Dooley, GT leaving the SEC and then Dodd’s retirement pretty much ended the GT UGA true rivalry. Believe it or not Clemson was to GT what GT is now to UGA. Tech owned them and even refused to play at Clemson, all of their games were in Atlanta. I think that only stopped when GT entered the ACC.
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Beating Tech isn’t the biggest victory but losing to them sure is the worst loss.
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