Why is Georgia vs. Georgia Tech called Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate? Explaining CFB rivalry
When it comes to nicknames, you just can't beat simplicity.
Just ask Georgia and Georgia Tech, the college football rivalry with the well-earned and outstanding moniker "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate." It's a rivalry game with 130 years behind it and 70 miles between it, a perfect concoction for an intrastate rivalry.
Georgia is one of four SEC schools to eschew conference rivalries during Rivalry Week, joining Florida (Florida State), Kentucky (Louisville), and South Carolina (Clemson). The common thread, of course, is that they all play in-state rivals if it's not a conference opponent.
The two schools will have their 117th meeting Saturday, with Georgia leading the all-time series at 70-41-5. Georgia has won the last five matchups. The Yellow Jackets' last victory came in 2016, a 28-27 nail-biter in which Georgia Tech scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to win for the second time in three years.
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This Bulldogs team enters as heavy favorites, per BetMGM on Monday, but the Yellow Jackets won't be dissuaded from trying to upend their hated rival's perfect season. That's what old-fashioned hate gets you.
Why is Georgia-Georgia Tech called Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate?
One of the great things about old-school college football rivalries is they often have histories that, with the benefit of hindsight, are hilarious.
There is a great deal of disputed history between the two schools, but we do know the name was coined by author Bill Cromartie, who published a book under the name in 1977.
The two schools live up to the eponym. Both schools refer to each other with a myriad of juvenile nicknames, and with this year's game being played in Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, expect to hear chants of "What's the good word?" "To Hell with Georgia!" on the broadcast.
It's hard to parse through what's real and what's embellishment in these schools' histories. Georgia has claimed Georgia Tech has stolen its Chapel Bell, which rings until midnight after wins and all night after wins against Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech has claimed Georgia has stolen its Ramblin' Wreck, the Model A mascot of the Yellow Jackets.
It is known the rivalry began from the word "go" when the schools met for the first time in 1893. The hotly contested rivalry game immediately berthed a series in which both sides simply didn't like each other. The sides complained of poor sportsmanship from each other, and it was that game that created the "Ramblin' Wrecks" moniker (Georgia Tech's train was wrecked on the ride home).
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There isn't one defining moment in the schools' intertwined histories that led to the name, it's just something that's always been there. It peaked during wartime in 1919, when Georgia mocked Georgia Tech fielding a team in 1917 and 1918 when many schools did not due to World War I. Georgia Tech was a military training ground.
Why was Georgia vs. Georgia Tech paused in the 1920s?
The longest hiatus this rivalry had came as a direct result of this happenstance.
A Georgia parade saw a Model T and a tank go on its route. The tank read "1917 GEORGIA IN FRANCE 1918." The Model T, meanwhile, read "TECH IN 'LANTA 1917-1918."
So irate over the insinuation was Georgia Tech that the rivalry was scrapped from 1919 through 1924, and by the time it was said and done, the schools hadn't played each other in nine years when they next met Nov. 14, 1925. And it wasn't just football. Every sport paused between the two schools.
What is the Georgia Tech fight song?
Schools calling each other out in their fight songs isn't especially rare. Indeed, Georgia and Georgia Tech both get called out name in Alabama's "Yea Alabama," in which Crimson Tide is implored to "teach the Bulldogs to behave" and "send the Yellow Jackets to a watery grave."
More rare, however, is a team calling out a rival in not one, but two songs.
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In Georgia Tech's "Up With The White And Gold" Georgia is mentioned inversely through the lyrics "down with the red and the black," whereas in "Ramblin Wreck" the aforementioned "to Hell with Georgia" lyric makes an appearance.
Georgia adds "to Hell with Georgia Tech" into "Glory, Glory," an in-game song but its secondary fight song. It does not mention Georgia Tech in an "official" capacity.
Georgia vs. Georgia Tech record
Georgia carries a five-game winning streak against the Yellow Jackets into Saturday's game, and a 70-41-5 all-time edge.
The Yellow Jackets hold the rivalry's longest winning streak at eight from 1949-1956 with the great Bobby Dodd at the helm. Georgia, however, has dominated recent history, winning 18 of the two teams' 22 matchups since 2000 (the two teams did not meet in 2000 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why is Georgia vs. Georgia Tech called Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate?
