This is the Morning Five, a weekly listing of five actual, factual nuggets to help you get your day started right. Today we’re bringing you five facts you may not have known about Georgia’s upcoming opponent, the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles.
#1 Like Prince, Tennessee Tech wears purple and changed its name a lot. The school was founded in 1909 as the University of Dixie. The school was initially private but struggled to stay afloat and was soon folded into the Tennessee public system and renamed the Tennessee Polytechnic Institute. In 1965 the school was renamed Tennessee Technological University.
#2 Small, but mighty. Tennessee Tech has a shade over 10,000 full-time students, not that many but also not that few. It is a Space Grant university and regional doctoral level research university, with emphases on among other programs manufacturing, water management, fisheries, and energy systems management.
#3 Fly like an eagle. The Tennessee Tech athletic teams are the Golden Eagles, and there is in fact a giant gold-painted eagle atop the school’s Derryberry Hall. The eagle was stolen from the lawn of a burned out motel in Monteagle in 1952 and by some wayward students. Rather than return it school and state officials negotiated a sale price of $500. The school’s mascot is the impeccably named Awesome Eagle.
#4 More than a few famous folks. Tennessee Tech counts among its alumni country singers Rodney Atkins and Dottie West, comedian Trae Crowder, NFL great Jim Youngblood, and former UGA basketball coaching legend Andy Landers.
#5 Looking to get on the board. The Golden Eagles are 0-2 all-time versus the Bulldogs, dropping a 67-0 decision back in 1943 and falling 38-0 when the teams played to open the 2009 season. Let’s see if Kirby and company can keep the decades-long shutout going.
Go ‘Dawgs!!!