#THWG

Georgia Tech (GT) has a huge rivalry with University of Georgia (UGA) that spans over a hundred years. This was the story were we told at orientation so my memory may be a little off on exact details but you'll get the idea. GT in the late 1800s were a technical school (woodwork, metalwork, stuff like that) and UGA was the more established school. GT had a bunch of guys that liked to play football (NFL/Gridiron that is) but were pretty much terrible while UGA was actually quite good. But one day, some coach saw the Tech man practicing and decided to start coaching them (you can see the fairytale starting right?).
So eventually GT went to UGA which is about an hour away and played them. By the end of the third quarter, GT were up by like 20 points. The UGA fans didn't appreciate this and starting to throw rocks and stuff at the GT team. Scared for their safety, they jumped on their bus and headed straight back to Atlanta without even finishing the game. The GT men were outrage with UGA and one player decided to write a message on the top of his house "The hell with Georgia". The phrase caught on and is now a healthy part of GT tradition. Thus a rivalry between the two schools has erupted and lasted the years.

These days, it seems that GT is the much better academic school and for the last few years, UGA has been the better football team. But that doesn't stop people making fun of UGA. In my Data Structures and Algorithms class, my professor when asking for disadvantages of a particular data structure or algorithm will say something to the effect of "Imagine your boss comes to you and says here's this software that a UGA graduate made and it's not working anymore, why?" or when explaining a queue using the metaphor of "Imagine you're in a queue at McDonalds and the UGA graduate says they can serve the next person, so the person at the front of the queue gets served" (that's FIFO for those comp sci people at there) and every time it gets a nice little chuckle.

Before I left for Atlanta, I was told by a Tech exchange student to UQ, if anyone asks you "what's the good word?" to always reply with "The hell with Georgia!". Also as an indication of the intensity of the rivalry, I was told that in the lead up to the Georgia, Georgia Tech game, they put the UGA mascot on the male urinals. Even when I was at my first college football game and I was saying to the people next to me that I really want to be at that Georgia game and joked "you know, the hell with Georgia and all that", a couple of people walking past us chanted out "The hell with Georgia".

Being a Queenslander, this sort of rivalry I can easily get behind. Growing up with State of Origin and Queensland's 8 straight titles (the last four years, it winning be $10 a series! :p), I am keen to get behind this sporting rivalry.

Despite all this, I was still surprised the other day. The Student Alumni Association (SAA) had a number of stalls around campus promoting people to join. I walked past one of these stalls slowly and looking curious (on purpose because it looked like they were giving out free stuff) when all of a sudden a man asked me "What the good word?", to which obviously I replied "The hell with Georgia....?" somewhat reluctantly. The result? I "won" a free pair of GT sunnies. The bit I love the most is the hashtag #THWG on one side which was also splattered on a few of their signs. So by just reinforcing the rivalry between the two schools, I got a free pair of sunnies and a can of coke. Any rivalry that gives me free stuff is always welcome.

Check me out sporting the lovely sunnies below (they don't suit me at all...haha) :)
#THWG