T-Book Tutorings: Shirttail Parades

For today's T-Book Tutorings, we talk about "Shirttail Parades":

One of the many traditions that freshmen were required to participate in, shirt tail parades were always quite the spectacle for onlookers to witness. Freshmen would form a tunnel after every game for the team to run through while departing the field. Then, if the team was victorious, the freshmen would parade around the streets of Atlanta, many times ending up downtown at Five Points for a pep rally. These parades were sponsored by Ramblin’ Reck Club and Georgia Tech cheerleaders. Participation in the shirt tail parades was taken very seriously, and if freshmen were caught skipping, they would be taken to RAT Court and put on probation. One of the most notable shirt tail parades occurred in 1956 before the game itself was ever played. Governor Marvin Griffin sought to disallow the Tech football team from competing in the Sugar Bowl as the opposing team fielded a black player. When students discovered the governor’s stance, they decided to take action. The shirt tail parade set off towards the Capitol, located just a short distance from campus, only to discover that the governor was at his residence, several miles away. Undeterred, they continued their march to the Governor’s Mansion, where they burned and hung him in effigy. The governor finally conceded to the students’ demands and allowed the football team to make the trip to the Sugar Bowl.

The organization of the parades is pretty crazy to think about. As we all know, we won that Sugar Bowl and you can view the trophy in person at the Edge Center.


"T-Book Tutorings" is brought to you in anticipation of the 2009-2010 T-Book, the ultimate guide to the history and traditions of Georgia Tech. The book is published by the Ramblin' Reck Club.

Any good shirttail parades or any good parade stories out there?

ACC football demands respect

I was driving to Atlanta on Wednesday through Columbia. Columbia is diehard Cock country and is one of the few metros that is 100% SEC. A particular radio host (who I don't remember the name) spoke about why the SEC > ACC. He simply said the ACC cannot win the big game and I tend to agree with him. We won the season series 6-4 but a battle (or small string of skirmishes) does not make a war.

Let's look back at BIG ACC-SEC matchups over the years that would've really solidified us as a premier conference and equalled the playing field against the SECers. And let's keep it restricted to the BCS Era:

1999 - UT defeats FSU (National Title)
2000 - LSU defeats GT (PB)
2002 - UF defeats MD (OB)
2003 - ugag defeats FSU (SB)
2005 - AU defeats VT (OB)
2006 - ugag defeats GT
2006 - UK defeats CU (MCB)
2006 - ugag defeats VT (PB)
2007 - AU defeats CU (PB)
2008 - Bamma defeats CU

The national stage and we fall flat on our faces. Not to mention our 1-9 mark in the BCS games. Now, why was it that we got beat in our game of the year ever since FSU's 2000 season? Coaching.

We haven't had premier coaches (besides Bowden) since the 90's. Bowden finally began to rust after his '03 Sugar Bowl debacle. That left us with a conference full of has been or never was coaches.

Expansion added Beamer. The Amato, Bunting, Roof, and Gailey departures improved the conference's coaching talent astronomically. And look what we have to show for it in 2008: a 6-4 record against our primary rival of a conference. I expect continued success against the SEC as we've shown in the NFL draft that we've had comparable talent all these years. Now, we have comprable if not superior coaching. What do you all think about the conference debate?