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Georgia Tech’s 103-year-old fan to be at Saturday’s game

Sisters Jo Atchison (left) and Alae Risse Leitch attended last year’s Vanderbilt game at Bobby Dodd Stadium. (AJC photo by Ken Sugiura)
Sisters Jo Atchison (left) and Alae Risse Leitch attended last year’s Vanderbilt game at Bobby Dodd Stadium. (AJC photo by Ken Sugiura)
By
Sept 22, 2017

A most faithful supporter of Georgia Tech is expected to attend the Yellow Jackets’ ACC opener against Pittsburgh Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Alae Risse Leitch, who is 103 and will celebrate her 104th birthday on October 1, was planning to join the masses at Bobby Dodd Stadium with her younger sister Jo Atchison.

“She’s so excited about going to the game,” Atchison said of her sister Friday. “She’s had her white and gold selected for days.”

Leitch first started attending games at Grant Field in the early 1920s. Leitch and Atchison’s uncle was Tech great Red Barron, a two-time All-American. The two sisters and their husbands, now deceased, were season-ticket holders for decades. At 103, Leitch is the same age as Grant Field and only needs a walker to move about.

The two planned to watch the game from the suite of Susan Johnson, wife of coach Paul Johnson.

An earlier version of this story misstated Alae Risse Leitch’s age.

About the Author

Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.

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