RAT CAPS THE SMALL, YELLOW BASEBALL-LIKE HATS KNOWN AS RAT CAPS—RAT being short for Recruit at Tech as well as an indicator of low-ranking status—were first introduced in 1915. Initially, freshmen were required to wear them every day on campus
until the Yellow Jackets football team beat the University of Georgia in the then traditional Thanksgiving Day rivalry game. If Tech lost the game, freshmen had to wear their RAT Caps until the end of the year. First year students caught without their RAT Caps were
fair game for hazing such as the “T-cut”—a buzz cut that left hair in the shape of a capital T. Though the original “RAT Rules” died out by the early 1960s, all freshmen still receive the caps, and many alumni keep them as cherished mementos of their time at Tech.
THE BACK PANEL SHOWS THE GOOD WORD: The phrase “To Hell with Georgia.” Sticklers today prefer the “HELL” to be written in all caps, while “georgia” should be all lower case. THIS RAT CAP, provided by the Georgia Tech Archives, belonged to Elizabeth Herndon, one of the first women enrolled as a full-time student at Georgia Tech in 1952.
ON THE SIDE PANELS OF THE CAP, students jot down the scores of Tech football games during their freshman year. If the Yellow Jackets win, the score is written right-side up; if they lose, it’s written upside down. ON THE UPTURNED BILL OF THE CAP, students write the acronym RAT, followed by their name, major, hometown and state.
50 | GTALUMNI.ORG/MAGAZINE | Volume 93 No. 1 2017