Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate is an American college football rivalry between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The two southern universities are located in the U.S. state of Georgia, with their main campuses separated by about 70 miles (110 km). They have been heated rivals since 1893.
The athletics rivalry between the two institutions has traditionally focused on football, a sport in which both programs have historically been successful, with an annual game often held on Thanksgiving weekend. However, they compete in a variety of other intercollegiate sports, as well as competing for government and private funding, potential students, and academic recognition regionally and nationally.
The University of Georgia (commonly referred to as UGA or simply as Georgia) is a liberal arts research university located in the college town of Athens. The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, Tech, or GT) is a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research university with a metropolitan campus in Midtown Atlanta. Georgia competes athletically in the NCAA's Southeastern Conference, while Georgia Tech has competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1979, after leaving the SEC in 1964.
The two teams have each won four national titles in football: Georgia Tech won the national championship in 1917, 1928, 1952, and 1990, while Georgia won it in 1942, 1980, 2021, and 2022. Georgia has also won a national title in baseball, in 1990. Both schools have also seen prominence in men's basketball, with Georgia Tech reaching the Final Four in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 1990 and 2004, advancing to the national championship game in 2004. Georgia made the Final Four in its first tournament appearance in 1983.
Series history
Establishment
The University of Georgia is the oldest land-grant university in the United States, founded on January 27, 1785. Georgia Tech was founded 100 years later on October 13, 1885. Patrick Hues Mell, the president of the University of Georgia at that time, was a firm believer that the new school should be located in Athens alongside UGA's main campus, like the Agricultural and Mechanical School. Despite Mell's arguments, the new school was ultimately built near what were then the northern city limits of Atlanta.
The first known hostilities between the two schools date back to 1891. The University of Georgia's literary magazine declared the school's colors to be "old gold, black, and crimson." Dr. Charles H. Herty, the first UGA football coach, felt that "old gold" was too similar to yellow and that yellow "symbolized cowardice." Also in 1891, a student vote chose old gold and white as Georgia Tech's school colors. After the 1893 football game against Tech, Herty removed old gold as an official school color. Tech first used old gold for their uniforms, as a proverbial slap in the face to UGA, in their first unofficial football game against Auburn in 1891. Georgia Tech's school colors were henceforth old gold and white.
Wartime disruption
Fuel was added to the fire in 1919, when UGA mocked Tech's continuation of football during the United States' involvement in World War I. At the time, Tech was a military training ground and had a complete assembly of male students. Many schools, such as UGA, had lost the vast majority of their able-bodied male students to the war effort, forcing them to temporarily suspend football during the war. As a result, UGA did not play a football game in 1917 or 1918. When UGA renewed its program in 1919, the student body staged a parade which mocked Tech's continuation of football during times of war. The parade featured a tank-shaped float emblazoned with the words "UGA IN ARGONNE" followed by a yellow-clad donkey and a sign that read "TECH IN ATLANTA". This act led directly to Tech cutting athletic ties with UGA and canceling several of UGA's home football games at Grant Field (UGA commonly used Grant Field as its home field). Tech and UGA did not compete against each other in athletics again until the 1921 Southern Conference basketball tournament. Regular-season competition was not renewed until a 1925 agreement between the two institutions.
Until Vince Dooley became Georgia's head coach in 1964, the rivalry was fairly evenly matched, with Tech holding a slim 27–26–5 series lead. This is mostly due to the success of Georgia Tech's hall-of-fame head coach Bobby Dodd, who had a 12–10 record against the Bulldogs. During his tenure, the Yellow Jackets won eight games in a row against UGA from 1949 to 1956. During these eight years, Tech dominated UGA, outscoring the Bulldogs 176–39. However, when Dooley took over at UGA in 1964, the rivalry flipped. Dooley went 19–6 against Georgia Tech, including a 3–0 head-to-head record against Dodd. Since 1969, UGA has dominated the rivalry, posting a 42–14 record against Georgia Tech. During this time the Bulldogs have had win streaks of six games (1978–1983), seven games (1991–1997), seven games (2001–2007), five games (2009–2013) and eight games (2017–present). Former Georgia coach Mark Richt finished with a record of 13–2 against Tech, while now-retired GT head coach Paul Johnson finished with a record of 3–8 against UGA. 2014 was the first year that a game went to overtime at Sanford Stadium. GT went on to win the game 30–24. In 2018, Georgia beat Tech in Athens 45–21. As of 2025, Georgia Tech is in the midst of a more than twenty-year home drought against the Bulldogs, having failed to beat Georgia in Atlanta since 1999. The Yellow Jackets lost to their in-state rivals 52–7 and 45–0 at Grant Field in 2019 and 2021, respectively, the largest-ever margins of victory for the Bulldogs. However, Georgia Tech holds the record for the single largest margin of victory with a 48–0 win over UGA from 1943. The matchup has gone into overtime four times throughout the history of the series, including a 44-42 win for the Bulldogs after eight consecutive overtime periods in Athens in 2024.
Fight songs
The fight songs, sung at every sporting event, have even been tailored to the rivalry. The "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech" was first published in the Georgia Tech yearbook, The Blueprint, and was written following the first Georgia football game in which Georgia fans harassed the Georgia Tech players and fans. Hence the infamous chorus "To Hell with Georgia" was written. "Up With the White and Gold", published in 1929, featured the lyrics "Down with the red and black" and even "Drop the battle axe on Georgia's head." Georgia's unofficial fight song, "Glory, Glory" was arranged in 1909 and remains unchanged to this day. Officially, the end of the fight song is "G-E-O-R-G-I-A", but Georgia students change the lyrics to "To hell with Georgia Tech!" during the Georgia-Georgia Tech game. In more recent years, students have replaced Georgia Tech in the song with the name of whatever school they are playing at the time. The official fight song of The University of Georgia is "Hail to Georgia", although many observers erroneously infer that the official fight song is "Glory, Glory" because it is played when a touchdown is scored.
Game results
Results by location
This is a list of results by location as of November 28, 2025.
Traditions
It is common for Georgia fans to refer to the Georgia Institute of Technology as Georgia Tech University, GTU, or North Avenue Trade School. The "GTU" nickname is derived from the common mistitle given to Georgia Tech in media outlets. Also, since Georgia Tech is an engineering school, Georgia fans often refer to Tech fans as nerds, dorks, Techies, or Gnats (acronym for Georgia North Avenue Trade School). The school's campus and Grant Field front North Avenue in midtown Atlanta, giving rise to the "Trade School" nickname. Grant Field is also very commonly referred to as "The Joke by Coke" by Georgia fans, based on its proximity to the headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company. Georgia fans also refer to the 600 level of Sanford Stadium as the "Tech Deck", due to the placement of Georgia Tech fans up in that section of the stadium.
In response, it is common for Georgia Tech fans to refer to UGA as the "university (sic) of Georgia" in printed media. The earliest use of this was in the Technique (Volume 86, Issue 4), where "University [sic] of Georgia" was used to imply it was a mistake to consider UGA a university. Later, it became common practice for Tech fans to leave the 'u' in university lowercase to avoid treating "University of Georgia" as a proper noun. The two practices have since merged, leading to the modern dysphemism and the widely used acronyms, "u(sic)GA" or simply "uGA."
A common rallying cry for students of Georgia Tech is the question "What's the good word?" to which the answer is "To Hell with Georgia!". In crowds, this is often called out by one person, and everyone else will shout the reply. This is repeated three times, and on the fourth time, they will then ask "How 'bout them Dawgs?" ("Piss on 'em!") Tech students have also created an unofficial fight song entitled '"To Hell With Georgia", which is set to tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic and refers to UGA as "the cesspool of the South" and their fans as "poor old farmboys."
Another long-standing tradition at Georgia Tech, which began in 1915, requires freshmen to wear a RAT cap, which stands for "Recently Acquired Tech student", around campus, and most notably to football games. The caps are decorated with the football team's scores, the freshman's name, hometown, major, and expected graduation date, and "To HELL With georgia" emblazoned on the back of the cap, with "HELL" written as large as possible and "georgia" in all lowercase. Anti-hazing laws have loosened the strictness and overall participation by most students at Georgia Tech (except in the volunteer marching band), though freshman still receive and decorate their RAT caps at convocation.
The school newspapers of the two institutions often mock their rival institution. The Red and Black, Georgia's daily newspaper, usually has a few jokes and articles mocking Georgia Tech the week before the football game. The Technique, Georgia Tech's weekly newspaper, prints a larger, special edition mocking The Red and Black. The special edition features several articles of parody and humor based on fictitious happenings at the University of Georgia, and is known as "To Hell With Georgia", after the school's popular cheer. On years where the schools play their match at UGA's Sanford Stadium, Technique staff distribute the issue across UGA's campus.
UGA students traditionally ring the school's Chapel Bell until midnight following any home football win. However, when UGA beats Tech, the bell rings all night long. Tech has a similar tradition with its whistle. UGA's Chapel Bell and Georgia Tech's Ramblin' Wreck have been rumored to have been stolen numerous times by their respective rival before, after, or even during major sporting events between the two schools. The bulldog statue in front of UGA's Memorial Hall was once stolen by Tech students. The culprits put the UGA and Tech police on a scavenger hunt to find the missing statue. Many fans of the respective institutions refuse to even partake in clothing, food, or other materials of their rival's school colors. Examples include Georgia fans refusing to eat mustard or Georgia Tech fans refusing to use red pens.
Two Georgia Tech fight songs refer to UGA in their lyrics: "Up With the White and Gold" has the lyric "down with the Red & Black", and "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech" contains the lyric "To Hell with Georgia". No UGA fight song officially refers to Georgia Tech in any way, though at the conclusion of "Glory, Glory" students often change the final line from G-E-O-R-G-I-A to "and to Hell with Georgia Tech" as they do with all of their opponents.
Sports
The game has been played 118 times according to Georgia Tech and only 116 times according to Georgia record books. Georgia discredits two games in 1943 and 1944 (both years in which Georgia Tech won) because many of their players went to fight in World War II, though official college football records include the games. The game has been played in either Athens or Atlanta alternating every year since 1928. Both Georgia Tech and Georgia hold 4 national titles for a total of 8 national titles between them. The two schools also have a total of 31 conference titles (15 for Tech, 16 for Georgia) between them, making the rivalry a battle between two historically prestigious programs.
The record between the two teams is 70 Georgia wins, 41 Georgia Tech wins, and 5 ties. Georgia Tech's longest winning streak, and the longest in the series, is eight games from 1949–1956. Georgia's longest winning streak in the series is also eight straight games from 2017 to present, tying the longest in the series. Georgia won the most recent game in the series on November 28, 2025 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in Atlanta, by a final score of 16-9. The victor wins the Governor's Cup. Like many rivalry games, the game is played during the final week of the college football season.