Unbelievable Moments and Facts from Georgia Tech's Football History
By: Jack Purdy, BA 22 | Categories: Tech History
Test Your GT Football Knowledge, then Keep Reading!
The Cumberland Game – The Largest Margin of Victory in Football History
Tech’s historic 222-0 win over Cumberland College in 1916 remains the most lopsided win in college football history. Tech scored 32 touchdowns, converted 30 extra points, forced 15 turnovers, and never took more than two plays per possession to score. At one point, Cumberland’s players refused to recover their own fumbles on offense.
With Tech leading 126-0 at halftime, the third and fourth quarters were shortened to 12 minutes each, with the Yellow Jackets scoring 54 points in the third quarter and 42 points in the fourth. The final score set a record that hasn’t been broken in a regulation, non-overtime college football game.
The First Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate in 1893
The day that led to a more than century-old rivalry between Georgia Tech and UGA had more than its share of oddball occurrences. Led by Leonard Wood, Tech pulled off a convincing victory to win 28-6 despite both teams accusing the other of using ineligible players and University of Georgia’s students accusing the umpire of unfairly calling the game in Tech’s favor with the chant:
“Well, well, well
Who can tell,
The Tech’s umpire has cheated like hell!”
“A stone propelled by a slingshot struck Wood over the right eye and left a wide gash and brought forth a gusher of blood,” wrote Al Thomy in The Ramblin’ Wreck: A Story of Georgia Tech Football.
One attendee drew a knife on a Tech player and others used their canes to poke at the players on the sideline.
“Athens took the defeat bitterly,” reported the Atlanta Constitution on November 5, 1893. Before the game, folks from Georgia’s team had accused Tech of enrolling students just to play football.
On the train ride back to Atlanta, Tech’s train collided with a stopped train in Lawrenceville, Georgia. This is one of the theories behind the origin of the nickname “Ramblin’ Wrecks.”
John Heisman’s Football Innovations
On the field, he was responsible for implementing passing into offensive plays, the sideways option pass (later used to great success at Tech under Paul Johnson), snapping the ball through the air to the quarterback, and saying “Hike!” to begin a play. While at Tech, he continued to innovate how to run the ball and trick defenses, making Tech one of the best programs in the 1910s on the way to their first championship in 1917.
For patrons watching games, his innovations included dividing games into quarters, creating live scoreboards, and labeling where the first down line was both on the field and scoreboard.
Eddie Lee Ivery Runs for 356 Yards While Sick
On November 11, 1978, Tech played in 21-degree temperatures with a wild chill of zero in Colorado Springs against the Air Force Academy. Eddie Lee Ivery, Mgt 92, needed 56 rushing yards to become the first Jacket to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season.He reached 56 yards with ease; the rest was a march to history. Averaging 13.7 yards a carry (an NCAA record at the time), Ivery ran for 356 yards, setting the NCAA single game record and breaking Tech’s program record by 139 yards, all while suffering a stomach bug.
“After a nifty reversal in direction, which resulted in a 73-yard touchdown early in the second quarter giving Tech a 14-0 advantage, Ivery could be seen on the sidelines doubled over at the waist, vomiting and in obvious pain,” wrote the Atlanta Constitution’s David Davidson in a November 12, 1978 article about Ivery’s plight.
Ivery received an anti-nausea tablet at halftime. Needing 15 more yards to set the record in the fourth quarter, his illness returned, and he left the game.
An interception gave Tech the ball back late in the quarter, at which point Tech’s head Coach Pepper Rodgers, IM 55, sent Ivery back out. He accomplished the feat with a 21-yard run.
Ivery’s record stood for six seasons until Washington State’s Reuben Mays ran for 357 yards in 1984.
