09-24-2026, 06:29 PM
Story behind la avispa amarilla since I know all y'all are dying to know. (Southern plural and I've never kicked that habit.)
Originally the Yellow Jackets were just that. Chaquetas amarillas. Outer wear. Yellow. Which is not red. The Yellow Jackets nickname started in the early 1900s when local sports writers used the term to describe Tech fans who attended football games wearing yellow coats and blazers. Coach Voldemort officially adopted the name in 1905 supplanting other nicknames like the Techs, the Blacksmiths, the Engineers and the Golden Tornadoes.
It wasn't until the early 1970s that anyone thought of using something more fierce than a sharp, garish blazer. Thus entered the aggressive, yellow-and-black stiped wasps often colloquially called "yellow coats". Yellow Jackets are responsible for 72 deaths per year in the U.S. on average and they are doing their best to kill me this year, I have to say. Statistics on bright yellow clothing related deaths are hard to find. Who knows, maybe that is a fiercer mascot. Anyway, thanks to student Judy McNair and her homemade costume unveiled in 1972, fear the bee.
When I started there, there was a movement by officialdom to consolidate the brand around the Ramblin' Reck (as students spell it, with "Wreck" being reserved for Dean Wormer and the Institute's trademark Nazis). Like emulating Auburn with War Eagle and Tigers was some sort of problem. I'm sure my frat brothers who ran the Ramblin' Raft Race on the 'hooch were down with that official brand consolidation but in 1980, Rickie "don't lose that number" Bland received some money from the Student Government Association, went to mascot camp at Virginia Tech, and Buzz was born. Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not; the Rambin' Raft Race also died.
I know Buzz will be at the game because I paid $20 to go to some alumni thing in Menlo Park tomorrow night and he's supposed to give me a "free" T-shirt if I'm one of the first hundred in the door. Doubt the Wreck Reck makes the trip although that would be cool.
Originally the Yellow Jackets were just that. Chaquetas amarillas. Outer wear. Yellow. Which is not red. The Yellow Jackets nickname started in the early 1900s when local sports writers used the term to describe Tech fans who attended football games wearing yellow coats and blazers. Coach Voldemort officially adopted the name in 1905 supplanting other nicknames like the Techs, the Blacksmiths, the Engineers and the Golden Tornadoes.
It wasn't until the early 1970s that anyone thought of using something more fierce than a sharp, garish blazer. Thus entered the aggressive, yellow-and-black stiped wasps often colloquially called "yellow coats". Yellow Jackets are responsible for 72 deaths per year in the U.S. on average and they are doing their best to kill me this year, I have to say. Statistics on bright yellow clothing related deaths are hard to find. Who knows, maybe that is a fiercer mascot. Anyway, thanks to student Judy McNair and her homemade costume unveiled in 1972, fear the bee.
When I started there, there was a movement by officialdom to consolidate the brand around the Ramblin' Reck (as students spell it, with "Wreck" being reserved for Dean Wormer and the Institute's trademark Nazis). Like emulating Auburn with War Eagle and Tigers was some sort of problem. I'm sure my frat brothers who ran the Ramblin' Raft Race on the 'hooch were down with that official brand consolidation but in 1980, Rickie "don't lose that number" Bland received some money from the Student Government Association, went to mascot camp at Virginia Tech, and Buzz was born. Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not; the Rambin' Raft Race also died.
I know Buzz will be at the game because I paid $20 to go to some alumni thing in Menlo Park tomorrow night and he's supposed to give me a "free" T-shirt if I'm one of the first hundred in the door. Doubt the Wreck Reck makes the trip although that would be cool.