Georgia Tech Wramblin Wreck... pretty cool university 1930 Model A Ford rumble seat coupe for cheerleading and tailgating, the official mascot of the student body.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-shots-from-days-gone-by.428585/page-6423

Before you get the idea that this is just a simple ordinary car, with nice paint... read the history, it's pretty damn cool, and about as unique as you now might expect

Dean of Student Affairs began a search for a new official symbol in 1960, specifically a classic pre-war Ford. Dull's search would entail newspaper ads, radio commercials, and other means to locate this vehicle. The search took him throughout the state and country, but no suitable vehicle was found until the autumn of 1960.

He spotted a polished 1930 Ford Model A outside of his apartment. How'd he miss that all year long? Well... that's a cool story.

The owner was Captain Ted J. Johnson, Atlanta's chief Delta Air Lines pilot, and he'd purchased the car from a junkyard in 1956 to restore the car as a father-son project. 2 years and over $1,800, plus  spare parts from many different sources , extremely different considering the mahogany dash was from a parts dealer in Caracas, Venezuela and he used Convair 440 aluminum sheets to replace the flooring.

On the day the Dean of GT looked outside his out his apartment window, the father and son were in Atlanta competing against Tech at the track meet. Capt Johnson, wanting to see his son compete, took the Model A to Tech campus, parked it near Towers dormitory, and went to watch his son compete.

When Capt Johnson returned to his car, he found a note from the Dean under the windshield wiper, which asked to purchase the car for service as Georgia Tech's official mascot. Johnson, after great deliberation, agreed to take $1,000, but eventually returned the money in 1984 so that the car would be remembered as an official donation to Georgia Tech and the Alexander-Tharpe Fund.

http://www.3rdattackgroup.org/georgia-tech.php

The current color scheme was selected in 1974 by then athletic director and former head coach, who then loved the colors so much, he changed the football helmet and uniform color to match the new car paint scheme.

Pete George, GT alumni, was the manager of the Ford Mo Co Hapeville Plant in Atlanta, was responsible for Ford's restoration of the car that led to the Gold paint

In 1963 while playing a game at University Of Tennessee, Georgia Tech learned a lesson after UT assured them they had a safe place to stow the car. When they came for it before the game UT had painted the car and wheels Orange, wrote "Go Vols" in the paint! HA! It's even been stolen twice by the University of Georgia

In an strange real story, it turns out it was in a wreck, at 70 mph while being towed. The trailer it was on had a wheel snap off, and suddenly the truck, trailer, and model a were hooking a hard immediate right and ended up on their sides sliding down the road, thankfully not tumbling or rolling.

No one hurt, but, no insurance was covering the model A! It wasn't conceivable that it would be wrecked as it didn't drive off campus... didn't do anything but parades into football stadiums, for example.

They raised the funds for bodywork by a Go Fund Me http://georgiasports.blogspot.com/2007/06/ramblin-wreckage-tech-students-crash.html



http://carzhunt.blogspot.com/2018/09/wild-hot-rod-weekend-jade-idol-pontiac.html

The tune is based on an old drinking song called "A son of a Gambolier" ("I'm a rambling rake of poverty/ and a son of a gambolier"). The lyrics are credited to Billy Walthall, an early student of what was then called the Georgia School of Technology. The song is said to date from the early 1890's, and was first published in 1908.

In 1953, the same year that this record was made, the Glee Club performed the song on CBS's Ed Sullivan Show. However, Mr. Sullivan insisted that the lyrics be bowdlerized to subsitute "heckuva" for the proper "helluva".  It was also crooned (and strummed on a mandolin) by Gregory Peck in The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, and whistled by John Wayne in The High and Mighty,

Later this decade, the song would be sung by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Vice President Richard Nixon at the 1959 Kitchen Debate. Nixon did not know any Russian songs, but Khrushchev knew one American song - Ramblin' Wreck - having heard it on Ed Sullivan.

Lyrics:

I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech, and a hell of an engineer—
A helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, hell of an engineer.
Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear.
I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer.

Oh! If I had a daughter, sir, I'd dress her in White and Gold,
And put her on the campus to cheer the brave and bold.
But if I had a son, sir, I'll tell you what he'd do—
He would yell, 'To hell with Georgia!' like his daddy used to do.

Oh, I wish I had a barrel of rum and sugar three thousand pounds,
A college bell to put it in and a clapper to stir it round.
I'd drink to all the good fellows who come from far and near.
I'm a ramblin', gamblin', hell of an engineer!

https://youtu.be/SnIH51niqCY  if you want to listen to it.
https://www.news.gatech.edu/features/wreck-driver if you want to read about it's day to day with the student entrusted to drive and maintain it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramblin%27_Wreck
https://www.gtalumni.org/s/1481/alumni/17/magazine.aspx?sid=1481&gid=21&pgid=10514&cid=22239&ecid=22239&crid=0&calpgid=10516&calcid=23008

Several B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators and at least one F4U Corsair were designated the name Ramblin' Wreck during service in World War II.

https://issuu.com/gtalumni/docs/2013_89_01 and download the issue for free, as a PDF. The article about this car begins on page 64

I guarantee you never thought you'd learn about Krushschev singing a song from the Ed Sullivan show today. Man, that tops learning that Hendrix was murdered for the most astonishing true fact that has no place on a car blog.

and I never would have guessed that college mascot vehicles were a thing... now I've posted a couple of them https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/college%20tailgating%20vehicle