Homecoming tradtions make Tech special

Homecoming at Georgia Tech is a time resplendent with both history and traditions that are relished by the Institute's community as a whole, alumni and students alike.

The homecoming festivities begin on Friday afternoon at 3:00, when the Mini-500 derby is run. The race is a multi-lapped tricycle race around Peters' Park. Teams of competitors maneuver the tricycles in a relay race that dates back to the mid-1970s. It was inspired by a common fraternity prank that called upon the chapter's pledges to transport themselves to their classes on the child's conveyance.

The oldest of Tech's homecoming traditions exclusively involves the freshman class. The Freshman Cake Race began as a cross-country race in 1911, and is held on homecoming morning with registration at 6:30 at the corner of Fowler and 5th streets. The event received its current name from a practice started in 1913 of awarding the winners with a cake baked by the wives of faculty and administrators, as well as the mothers and sweethearts of the participants. The early races, held on courses of two to four miles in length, were voluntarily run by members of all classes at Tech. The event drew large fields of runners, evident in the numbers of cakes distributed in those early years. The record of 160 cakes awarded was set in 1929.

The Cake Race was incorporated into the homecoming celebration in 1935, and made a compulsory event for freshman who were not physically disqualified. The inclusion of a homecoming queen in 1954, and later a homecoming king, augmented the awards to the winners of the race. In addition to a cake, each winner received a kiss from the homecoming monarch of the opposite sex. This award, however, fell out of practice in the 1970's, as did the obligatory participation of the first quarter freshman. Amusingly, there exists a picture in the Georgia Tech Archives of a young Sam Nunn receiving a kiss from the homecoming queen for winning the race his freshman year.

The proudest of the homecoming traditions is the Ramblin' Reck Parade, held on Saturday morning around 9:00 and sponsored by the Ramblin' Reck Club. The parade is traditionally led by Tech's own Ramblin' Reck, and follows a route leading from the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, down Fowler to Fifth Street, and then right toward Russ Chandler Stadium.

The parade is a descendant of the old 'Flying Fliver' road races of May 1929 and 1930, run from Atlanta to Athens and founded by the 'Technique'. The race evolved to became a parade when the administration, led by auto enthusiast and Fliver participant Dean Floyd Field, decided that a parade would be less hazardous than the illegal road race.

The first parade in 1932 was led by Dean Field in his beloved 1916 Ford, a vehicle felt by many to be the first Ramblin' Reck. The first parade winner was the entry from Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

The Ramblin' Reck Parade contains entries in three categories: the contraption, the fixed-body, and the classic car. In the contraption category, the reck is propelled by an indirect drive train, in which the transmission does not directly propel the vehicle's driving wheels. The fixed body relies on a direct drive train, as does the classic car category, whose entries are unaltered vehicles at least 20 years old.

It is interesting to note that as the Ramblin' Reck Parade developed over the years, the inclination to convert the parade to the more usual 'float' parades held by other colleges and universities has been adamantly opposed by the student body. The distinctive character of the Ramblin' Reck Parade has been preserved by the Institute, and acts as a tribute to the ingenuity and nickname that has made Georgia Tech famous the world over.

Some of the campus buildings are decorated for homecoming as well. Fraternities, sororities, and other organizations create displays in keeping with a theme that is selected by the Student Center Homecoming Committee. This theme is reflected in displays created from wood, chicken wire, and colored paper. Some contain rather ingenious moving parts, and a few are even controlled by computer.

The traditions that surround the homecoming weekend are some of the oldest and dearest of the Institute's. It is appropriate that they be celebrated at a time dedicated to the return of the alumni to Tech, so that their keeping can be enjoyed by both Tech students and alumni, helping to bind together the old with the new.