Separated by 70 miles of interstate between Atlanta and Athens Georgia, and founded 100 years apart, The Georgia Institute of Technology (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 gridiron that this rivalry excels.
The dislike that these two schools have for each other probably started right after the Civil War when it was decided that a new technological school should be founded. Then UGA president Patrick Mell attempted to convince legislators that the new school should be located by Georgia’s main campus in Athens. despite his efforts, The Georgia Institute of Technology was established near the city limits of Atlanta in 1885.
It didn’t take long for the first hostilities to begin only a few years later in 1891 over, of all things, the school colors. UGA’s school magazine declared the school colors to be gold, black and crimson. Georgia’s football coach felt that gold was too close to yellow, which he felt symboled cowardice. That same year however, the Tech student body voted white and gold as the official school colors. In their first ever football game against Auburn, Tech would use gold on their football uniforms, some felt as a slap in the face of Georgia. Two years later, after Tech defeated Georgia in their first football game, gold was forever removed from Georgia’s school colors.
That first fateful game took place in Athens on November 4, 1893 with Georgia Tech, then known as the Blacksmiths, won by a score of 28 – 6. But it was who scored those 4 touchdowns that sparked the rivalry. Leonard Wood was a 33 year old US Army Physician who was officially registered as a Georgia Tech student a only a few days before the game. However, being a full time student, he was eligible to play. This fact upset Georgia fans since during and after the game they hurled rocks a debris at all the Tech players. The next day an article in the Atlanta Journal, by an Athens sports writer, mocked that Tech’s football team was nothing more than a collection of Atlanta residents with a few students thrown in.
