Yeah… I’m looking at you … #45.
It’s time for football again! This year, Georgia Tech will start off against the name probably in brightest lights. Notre Dame comes to Atlanta bringing a national broadcast, loads of hype, and probably every subway alumni that could e-bay a ticket. The matchup should be huge. Of course, the 1975 game is the most ballyhooed of all the games, immortalized by the movie Rudy which still makes every Tech fan see red, but there have been plenty of other matchups between Notre Dame and Georgia Tech.
Not that you could really call it a rivalry. Out of the 32 times the two teams have met, Tech has only won five times. That’s not exactly a rivalry, Tech has been more of a cupcake that Notre Dame schedules between their games against USC and Michigan. Some of those five wins have been pretty memorable, however. In 1976, Tech beat Notre Dame without throwing a single pass, using the wishbone offense to move the ball on the ground the entire game. At the same time of the infamous 1980 Georgia-Florida game while Larry Munson was screaming “Lindsay Scott!! Lindsay Scott!!”, Georgia Tech pulled an upset off against #1 Notre Dame not with a win, but with a 3-3 tie. Ironically, the tie bumped Notre Dame out of the top spot in the polls and vaulted the hated Bulldogs up to #1 and on their National Championship.
The win over Notre Dame I’ll remember most though, is the 1999 Gator Bowl victory. Little Joe Hamilton and Dez White hooked up to roll over the Irish. The final score was 35-28, but it really wasn’t that close as the Irish made a feeble attempt to come back late in the game. The game was my first ever bowl game and it was fun to see so many Tech fans show up. We outnumbered the Irish fans at least 3 to 1 at the game. I wonder if the odds will be that good in our own stadium this Saturday? The whole weekend spent in Jacksonville with friends and the girl I had just started dating, one young Adriene Hodges, has lots of great memories.
Bring out the green jerseys again like you did in 1999, Notre Dame, we dare you.
“The hammer and the nail don’t have much of a rivalry.”
That said, kick some Irish ass.