I’m not really one to make a big deal about my birthday. I don’t know, it wasn’t ever a big event when I was a child. We had parties and all, but by the time I was a teenager, it was usually just dinner and some presents. Not that I’m complaining, I’ve always liked it that way. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve made less and less of deal of it because I’m not so much on the “making fun of someone because they are old” thing. Some of you may remember how poorly I took my 30th birthday. So, this year when my birthday fell on a Saturday that Georgia Tech was playing football, I was fine with celebrating the day at the stadium. A Tech win would be a bonus, but just getting out of the house and watching a football game was good enough.

Georgia Tech would be playing Florida State. For most of the students and players, this was just another big ACC matchup, but for most people that graduated when I did, we have a little bit of a complex about Florida State. Tech hadn’t beaten FSU in 12 tries in a row. Most of those years Tech got destroyed by the Seminoles, but in the later years it became a Sisyphean task where Tech would always come close, but never win the game. This game was, by all accounts, pretty even going in, but me and my friends knew it was Florida State. There would be bad officiating, a bad bounce of the football, and something bad would happen.

The game played out in a familar way, Tech took a lead into halftime 24-20 and then in the third quarter added another touchdown to lead 31-20 and it appeared like Tech was starting to pull away. Then, it all started happening again. Our quarterback was injured and out of the game. A missed holding call in FSU’s own endzone and then a zipping pass to the endzone closed the game to 31-26 and FSU converted the two point conversion (naturally) and suddenly they were within a field goal. Of course, Tech threw an interception and suddenly the unstoppable ‘Noles were driving down the field again with less than five minutes to play. I turned to my friend and said glumly, “this is playing out just like 1992.”

You see, in 1992, I was senior in high school and on my way to Georgia Tech the next year. I was listening to the game on the radio and during the fourth quarter I drove out to pick up a pizza for the family. I listened to the game on the car radio and when I reached the pizza place, Tech lead 24-13 with only four minutes to go. By the time I got out of the car, picked up the pizza, got back in the car and turned the car radio on, Tech was losing 27-24. I was horrified. How could they possibly lose this game? But that’s the way it always is with Georgia Tech.

And so I watched in dread as FSU drove down the field, knowing that inevitably, once again, Florida State would beat Georgia Tech in stomach-punching fashion. And then something funny happened, on his way to the endzone, Cooper Taylor hit the running back in the hands with his helmet and the ball popped out of his hands. The next thing I knew, I was crushed at the bottom of a celebrating dog-pile. For once, fate had smiled upon us and Tech had won. Students flooded the field and we celebrated in the stands. I’ve had a lot of birthdays, but this would be one of the more memorable ones for sure.

More pictures on my Flickr site!