By '84:
If you can't go to college, go to State (clap,clap)
If you can't go to college, go to State (clap,clap)
If you can't go to State, go to jail (clap,clap)
If you can't go to State, go to jail (clap,clap)
"To Hell With Georgia" is officially part of the Georgia Tech fight song, so the sentiment's been around other places for awhile.
It goes back a long time ago when I was overseas. I had a girlfriend named Caroline. She sent me a Dear John letter. It upset me so much that I sent a Postal Union telegram. I wanted to say, "Got to he11 Caroline. Go to he11." The clerk at the Postal Union Office told me that I could save some money if I made it shorter, so I cut it back to just the first letter of each word. I never heard from her again.
What a surprise when I enrolled at Duke a couple of years later, and the students were chanting my telegram.
In my era (eons ago), I most remember it coming into play when the Carolina fans chanted, "Go, Tar Hells, Go." It drew the predictable "Go to hell" rejoinder from the Duke fans. And by the way, there were Carolina fans at Duke for both football and basketball.
sagegrouse
I remember it chanted at my first Carolina game my freshman year at Duke during the '64-'65 season. But then, as many of you already know, my memory is getting worse every single day---seriously.
Care to comment, Janet? Your memory is a lot better than mine, and you were attending the games before me.
ricks
I got a nice little chuckle when I was reading Tony Parker's Round table and Dion Glover mentioned that he was told to hate Georgia.
One look at GA Tech's fight song will show you that variations of "To hell with ####" have been going on since the mid 1800s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramblin...m_Georgia_Tech
I wouldn't be surprised if "GTHC" started with the very FIRST game.
In fact, we may even have Teddy Roosevelt to thank...
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/...ple_want_coal/
Supa "probably way more than you were looking for" Dave!!
Lotus was correct! When Moses first came down the mountain with the famous tablets their were eleven commandments. The eleventh was GTHCGTH! I believe the story goes that he saw his people with idols and committing sins so he smashed the original tablets and returned to receive a new tablet. This new one had the eleventh commandment inadvertently omitted. But before smashing the original commandments, in a fit of anger and disappointment, he was quoted saying, "Let it be Written, let it be Said", "not let it be done". So the story goes. Thus GTHCGTH! Go Devils!
Could it have been in response to this Dean Smith quote?:
“I do believe in praising that which deserves to be praised.”
Perhaps uttered simultaneously in Durham and Raleigh?
Although I am nowhere near a reliable reference, I certainly remember attending Duke football games (I was pre high school) in the early 60's, and the football stadium frequently rocked with "GTHCGTH" from a united...and large...student body section seated within the "fences." I was somewhat shocked by such language!
OTOH, I definitely recall the response from the other side of the stadium when the faded blues were in attendance - "We're here, Duke...we're here!" or something along that line.
Now, back to my rocking chair.
k
The phrase was actually born on May 20, 1861.
When North Carolina seceded from the Union, President Lincoln famously proclaimed to his wife, "The last of the Southern states has left us. Carolina can go to hell."
The utterance was recorded by Jimmy Duke (James B. Duke's grandfather), the unknown forebear of Washington Duke, in the diary he had been keeping. Young Jimmy, you see, was President Lincoln's personal assistant--his body man, if you will.
Years later, when Washington Duke helped bring Trinity College to Durham, he told the college's first class of students, "President Lincoln once swore this state to hell. We shall make this state worthwhile; we shall be a beacon of light in this dark place. Let Carolina go to hell; we've got all the heaven we need right here."
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
"And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day,' and the darkness he called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day."
So there you have it.