Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Football - Traditions

Traditions

• Colors – Georgia Tech football features old gold and white uniforms with old gold helmets. Navy blue and black have been used as alternate jerseys. In 2006, Georgia Tech featured a throwback jersey based on Bud Carson-era uniforms. The jerseys were mustard gold and the helmets were white.
• Songs – The fight songs for Georgia Tech are "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech" and "Up With the White and Gold". If Georgia Tech scores a touchdown, then both songs are played. If Georgia Tech only kicks a field goal, "Ramblin' Wreck" is played. For some big plays, a shortened version of either song is played.
• Nicknames – Georgia Tech football teams have had several nicknames over the years including the "Blacksmiths", the "Engineers", the "Golden Tornado", or just the "Techs". Officially, the teams are called the "Yellow Jackets" or the "Ramblin' Wreck".
• Mascots – The "Ramblin' Wreck" and the yellow jacket "Buzz" are the mascots of Georgia Tech football. The "Ramblin' Wreck" is a 1930 Ford Model A Sports Coupe, and it has led the football team on to Grant Field every game since September 30, 1961. "Buzz" began pacing the sidelines of Grant Field as a mischievous anthropomorphized yellow jacket during the 1970s. "Buzz" was ranked the number three top mascot in all of college football by "America's Best" and the "Top Ten" Web site.
• Yellow Jacket Alley – "Yellow Jacket Alley" is an event staged before every game. It is a players' walk in which the team and coaches walk from the buses to the stadium, and the fans surround and cheer the walking players.
• Steam Whistle – An industrial steam whistle has been present on Georgia Tech's campus ever since the early industrial shop years. It typically was blown for the change of classes at five minutes before the hour. On football game days, the whistle is blown after every Yellow Jackets' score, and again after every Yellow Jackets' victory.
• Student Section – The student sections for the Yellow Jackets' home football games are primarily located in the North and South End Zones of Grant Field. Until the 2011 season, Flash Card displays were performed by the student section every football season since 1957. A semi-official student cheering section called the "Swarm" is located in the North End Zone adjacent to the marching band. The Swarm began in 1996.
• RAT Caps - Incoming Georgia Tech freshmen are referred to as RATs, which stands for Recruits At Tech, although in recent years the Student Government has begun incorrectly using Recently Acquired Tech Students. A RAT is encouraged to wear the gold colored beanie caps with the front bill worn turned up and bearing the students name, hometown, major, class year and the letters "RAT". A RAT should record the scores of each football game on the sides of their RAT Cap, written right side up for victories, upside down for losses, and sideways for ties. A RAT should write the "Good Word" on their caps: "To HELL with georgia". It is the responsibility of a RAT to know the fight songs, the Alma Mater, all of the cheers and the "Good Word". Before ACC conference regulations prohibited the practice, upperclassmen ordered "RATS on the field" before each home game, and RATS would line up in the end zone along both sides of the entry way from the locker room forming an alley way for the Ramblin' Wreck to drive through leading the team out onto the field. The ACC forced an end to this tradition after the 1980 season. The RAT cap tradition is most strictly observed by members of the marching band.
• Marching Band - Even though Georgia Tech is a high-ranking Institute of Technology, and not a college of the arts and humanities, it still fields a 300+ member marching band at all home football games and Bowl Games. A smaller Pep Band attends road games which the full band doesn't attend. Among other songs, the Yellow Jacket Marching Band always plays the Georgia Tech fight songs and the Alma Mater, and in addition, it plays "When You Say Budweiser, You've Said It All" at the completion of the third quarter.