North Avenue Trade School

This is a story of a boy and the lessons that his father instilled in him at a young age.

"Beat the rush, Hate Tech early." - Father Bubba -

These were some of the first words that I ever remember hearing from my father, a 1970 graduate of the University of Georgia. He repeated these words early and often and will probably repeat them when I arrive home for Thanksgiving later this evening. He spoiled me with certain pleasures like Lewis Grizzard, Bluegrass Music and the same tape recorded Arlo Guthrie rendition of "Alice's Restaurant" was always played when we drove to Americus High School football games together. Completely off topic and in honor of Thanksgiving tradition, here is the epic song:


Arlo Guthrie Alice's Restaurant

However, no lesson was as clear or as pronounced as our disdain for the NATS. At the age of thirteen, I told Dad that I wanted to be an architect and go GTU to get my degree. He responded by saying that he hoped I enjoyed spending Thanksgiving somewhere else. Luckily for me, that dream only lasted only a week, like most of my off the wall thirteen year old dreams. Besides, I'm sure Dad would have let me in the house to sleep but I'm pretty sure that all of my UGA aunts, uncles, and cousins would have made me pretty uncomfortable.

Watching UGA beat the Trade School every year was a Bubba family tradition and I’ve seen my share of brawls, beat downs, and miracles with the below clip being my favorite UGA/GT game of all time:



As I grew into adolescence, my love of the Red and Black never wavered, even when I met one of my best friends in 7th grade. We will call him Leroy. Leroy had a long lineage of Techness (easily confused with tackiness) in his family, including his grandfather and his father. This puzzled me as I had never actually met a Bumble Bee fan before, at least one that was proud of it. Leroy and I have many fond memories together and he still clings to 1998-2000 (years of witch it took an illiterate, drunk driving QB and 10 ineligible players to defeat the Dawgs) like it were yesterday. Leroy and I were on the 20 yard line in 1999 together when Jasper Sanks didn’t fumble and my young world came crashing down. Still to this day, Leroy will not let me live that epic game down and I would have it no other way.

What I am saying is that Thanksgiving is the Father’s Day of college football. Thanks to my father, I went to the University of Georgia and grew up knowing two things for certain:

1) It is always great to be a Georgia Bulldog.

2) The North Avenue Trade School is an Evil, Nerdy, Ugly place where all the beer is stale.

To close my story, I despise Georgia Tech. I hate them more than BFR hates Florida. Nothing on earth is better than beating Georgia Tech. I will take a win in badminton over GTU and badminton is stupid. The Techies gave us Bill Curry, I despise Bill Curry. Georgia Tech students say "To Hell with Georgia", I say to hell with you.

Techies, enjoy admiring our women from afar, enjoy your CarQuest Bowl trophies and your upcoming trip to the Tire Bowl because we are a little too busy winning 33 of the last 44 games. UGA is a little busy competing in the Southeastern Conference, a conference that you left in 1963. A move so bold that it allowed you to promptly fall on your face and go 4-6 from 1967 to 1969.

Vince Dooley owned you, Ray Goff owned you, and Mark Richt currently owns you. Your car, like your social life on campus, is still a wreck:

Go Dawgs!

*Picture courtesy of Georgia Spots Blog