In honor of Tech’s 125th birthday year, we’re partnering with Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine to highlight a piece of Tech history. This issue’s topic: Georgia Tech’s first graduates.

The following excerpt is number 54 on the list “125 Pieces of Tech History,” featured in the September/October 2010 issue of Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine: 

In 1890, H.L. Smith and G.C. Crawford were Tech’s first graduates. Smith won a coin toss to determine who would receive the first degree, which is now housed in the archives.

“It was the greatest honor I ever received,” Smith later said. After graduation, he became a superintendent at Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills in Atlanta.