It is much more than an old car.
The Ramblin’ Wreck, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary at Georgia Tech’s game Saturday, is an embodiment of the school, its students and alumni.
“It’s an engineering school and, for years, that’s how people at Georgia Tech were perceived — smart, handy, mechanical, but maybe rough around the edges,” said Justin Barnes, an Atlanta attorney who served as the driver of the 1930 Ford Model A Sport coupe for the 2003 season. “And when people see it, they can relate to it.”
About 15 former drivers, some of whom have established an endowment to maintain the car, are expected to be at Bobby Dodd Stadium for a halftime presentation honoring the Wreck, still in good health after countless repairs and overhauls.
Unveiled Sept. 30, 1961, the car has led the team onto the field for every home game since, enduring defacement, an attempted carjacking on a drive home from Athens, thefts and, most notably, a lower-case wreck in 2007 that caused more than $40,000 in damage. It has even withstood an impatient football coach.
“Quite honestly, about my only dealings with the Ramblin’ Wreck is to tell ’em to get out of the way sometimes,” Paul Johnson said this week.
Barnes and other drivers shared their experiences driving the Wreck.
Lisa Volmar, 1984
Volmar was the first female driver of the Wreck, or, as members of the Ramblin’ Reck Club prefer, the “Reck.” After drawing some derision both from students and alumni, her moment of truth arrived during homecoming week when, parked on a street near several fraternities, the Wreck wouldn’t start.
With curious fraternity brothers looking on, Volmar pulled open the hood, used her trusty butter knife to adjust the timing, started the car and drove off.
“After that, nobody gave me any grief,” she said.
For the Wreck, Volmar endured sleepless nights when she took it to away games, fretting that someone would abscond with it, even though it was stored and tied down inside a truck. At a game at Auburn, she hopped out of the Wreck and chastised fans who dared throw ice at it.
Said Volmar, who lives in Fayetteville and works for credit-score supplier TransUnion, “I still love every inch of it.”
Justin Barnes, 2003
Barnes remembers his first “ride-out,” as the Wreck’s drive onto the field is called, like it was yesterday, he said.
It was a night game against Auburn in front of a packed house. His palms were slick with sweat. He tried to stay focused as the marching band blasted the fight song, Tech fans went bananas and cheerleaders hung from the running boards.
Said Barnes, “It’s one of those life experiences that gives you goose bumps.”
He maintained contact with the car after graduating. Before the 2006 home opener, the car was having trouble getting started. He and a few others worked 18 consecutive hours to replace the entire electrical system and the starter. They got it running three hours before kickoff.
He may have been just re-paying a debt to the dutiful coupe.
Was it helpful with girls?
“Yes, it was,” Barnes said. “I’ll leave it at that.”
Austin Berry, 2010
On track to graduate in December, Berry had a relatively incident-free drivership, although the transmission was overhauled on his watch.
Of the ride-out, Berry said “the real skill behind it is that you have to get in second gear before you hit the run-through banner. The rest of it’s just common sense: Don’t hit any cheerleaders or band kids or football players.”
Berry shared a story from a previous driver when the wait to ride on to the field took too long for a certain coach.
“The athletic association was telling the driver to wait, and Paul Johnson said, ‘Whether you go or not, we’re going,’” Berry said. “So the driver had to put it in gear and went.”
About the Author
