After Auburn and Georgia, the team that Georgia Tech has played more than any other in football is Duke. Georgia Tech and Duke have played each other 72 times. There’s lots of talk about Georgia Tech and Duke when it comes to basketball, but Tech and Duke have had a pretty heated football rivalry, too. Tech only leads the series 41-30-1.
Most of Duke’s wins came in the 40’s and 50’s when they were a power in the old Southern Conference. During the dryer years of the 70’s and 80’s, Duke also won nine out of twelve from Tech from 1972 to 1983. Steve Spurrier also enjoyed success against Tech when he was head coach at Duke. The legend goes that Spurrier was passed over for Bill Curry for the head coach position at Georgia Tech (Spurrier was a quarterbacks coach under Pepper Rogers) and Spurrier was so angry he vowed to never lose to Georgia Tech. He never did, winning the three in a row before bolting for his alma-mater, Florida. The low point came in 1987 when he continued to tell the quarterback to throw the ball deep late in the fourth-quarter scoring touchdowns long after the game was over to embarrass Tech 48-14. Tech fans still haven’t forgotten about that game (though beating Georgia often did help Spurrier’s image among Tech fans.)
That’s not to say Georgia Tech has not beaten Duke many times. It should be noted that Duke has been Georgia Tech’s homecoming opponent more than any other team. Recently, Georgia Tech has turned the tables and won thirteen out of fifteen games against Duke. The most glaring aberration in recent years was the 41-17 beating that Tech took at the hands of Duke, this time from another former Georgia Tech assistant coach, Ted Roof. I remember Adriene went with some of her girlfriends to the game and I decided to play in a golf tournament instead. She called me when I was on the ninth tee and said, “I am so glad you are not here to see this.” I replied, “Yep! I am too!”
I did go to Durham for a Georgia Tech-Duke game once in 1999. Tech struggled in the game until Joe Hamilton finally pulled the game out to win 38-31. Despite all the wins in Durham recently, Georgia Tech has not played well in Durham historically which has me worried about this weekend. My first date with Adriene was a football game against Duke. It was a 41-13 victory and all around a pretty good day.