Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan has Georgia Tech credentials that need no questioning. He attended Tech and was a freshman pitcher on the Yellow Jackets’ 1994 College World Series team. His wife Brooke is a Tech grad.
Likewise, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is a Tech alumnus, worked at the institute and is on the alumni association’s board of trustees. Despite their loyalties, the state’s two most prominent politicians with Tech ties made the same decision that most Tech alumni and fans would deem anathema as Monday night’s national championship game against Alabama approached – aligning with archrival Georgia.
“At this point in the season, Georgia Tech, their season’s over and Georgia’s got a chance to bring great fame and fortune to the state of Georgia by winning a national championship here,” Duncan told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday, prior to his flight to Indianapolis to watch the game in person with his family. “And that helps all 11 million Georgians, even Tech fans.”
Austin Wagner, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, told the AJC in an e-mail that “for (Monday night) only, he’ll be setting aside the rivalry to cheer for Georgia!”
Cheering against Georgia is almost as much a part of being a Jackets fan as supporting Tech. After all, the school fight song even includes the phrase “To hell with Georgia.” Jackets fans took no shortage of glee, for example, in Georgia’s heartbreaking loss to Alabama in the national championship game in January 2018. As one Tech fan tweeted after that game, “There’s nothing sweeter than UGA tears. Way to rip their hearts out Bama.”
While expressing that “nothing has diminished my wife or my allegiance to Georgia Tech,” he spoke glowingly of Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart’s program, school president Jere Morehead and athletic director Josh Brooks. He said that “the whole thing started” with his eldest son Parker’s enrollment at Georgia.
“He has been a big fan, and he goes to a lot of the games,” Duncan said.
But he added that he would support Georgia even if his son weren’t a student in Athens and went further to say that cheering for the Bulldogs was not a decision based on the fact the state’s voters lean heavily red and black.
“Certainly no political decision here,” he said. “I’m cheering on the No. 1 football team in the country. I think all Georgians should do that (Monday). We can go back to being rivals on Tuesday morning.”
Duncan said he has taken “subtle ribbing” from Tech fans. (Less subtle was the response from a Tech supporter to a tweet in support of Georgia that he posted from the Orange Bowl: “Maybe we need to drain that gold blood out of you and replace it with red.”)
“But I think even the most ardent supporters that just don’t want to utter the words, ‘Go, Dawgs,” they’re still cheering for them behind the scenes,” said Duncan in an assertion that might raise the eyebrows of most Tech fans.
Duncan said that he hoped when the Jackets play for a national championship that UGA fans will return the favor.
“Certainly, one day we’ll be playing for a national championship again,” Duncan said. “It may take us some time, but certainly (we’ll) get back in the fold.”
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