# Talk:George P. Burdell

Should the current IMDB reference to GP Burdell be included in "external links?" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.15.34.234 (talk • contribs) 

Done. —Disavian (talk/contribs) 14:52, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

The link to the georgia tech site is dead. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.99.91.45 (talk • contribs) 

The following from here should be worked into the article somewhere: 

Drennon said George's first prank came after he was snubbed by a fraternity he had intended to join. "That irritated George. He went out and ordered a truckload of furniture to be delivered c.o.d. to that fraternity. Of course, the order was made by George P. Burdell."
"In 1981, The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a contest to determine the most outstanding college legend. "George Griffin [then retired dean of students] asked me to write it up George. The essay had to be less than 500 words; I wrote it up, we sent it off, and it won first place. We won $500 for the Georgia Tech Alumni Association."
Also, this says: (new informaton bolded)

George P. Burdell was created in 1927 as a practical joke. Incoming freshman William Edgar Smith received two enrollment application forms by mistake. He completed one accurately for himself, and filled out the other using as the surname either the first name of his friend's mother, the name of a former headmaster, or the name of his cat. Sources differ as to which of the three Burdell was named.
He once enrolled for 3,000 quarter hours and has received two degrees. Burdell has also occupied several important positions at Georgia Tech, including a Regents' Professorship, the Deanship of Humanities and Fine Arts, and a seat on the Board of Regents. 
From here:

Burdell, George P. — of Georgia. Democrat. Alternate delegate to Democratic National Convention from Georgia, 2000. Still living as of 2000.
—Disavian (talk/contribs) 15:03, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

I added the relevant parts today. —Disavian (talk/contribs) 05:41, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Article is missing one key piece of information:  when was the ruse first discovered?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Efalk (talk • contribs) 01:36, 9 January 2009 (UTC) 

lead does not summarize article, has cite needed tags, ref fmt inconsistent.Sumoeagle179 03:17, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, is there any way to expand the lead? I know the article's not long, but still.--Wizardman 05:22, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
Is that any better? FYI, in the first review, the lead was simply "George P. Burdell is a fictitious student officially enrolled at Georgia Tech in 1927 as a practical joke." I agree that was a bit short, but there's not much more detail to be had than the current version, IMO. —Disavian (talk/contribs) 05:33, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
Okay, the addition is better. It's a short article, so 3 sentences can probably suffice as a lead. 2 was pushing it. I'll look over the article again to see if I can find any other problems.--Wizardman 13:03, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

The only issue is that the image has no fair use rationale; it's tagged fair use, which I agree with, but it needs a rationale per the image guidelines for GA: "6 (c) any non-free images must have a fair use rationale".  Once that's done I will pass the article.  Mike Christie (talk) 01:08, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Rationale has been added. —Disavian (talk/contribs) 05:55, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Passed GA.  Nice article.  Mike Christie (talk) 10:53, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

History records show that George P. Burdell was “born” on September 15th so many years ago. This year, September 15th fell on a Friday before a home football game; it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to throw Burdell a birthday party.
http://www.nique.net/issues/2000-09-22/campus%20life/2
This is something that I think you might want to consider adding.  September 15th?  Funny.  Funny how in 2000 someone had a similar idea as whereis... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Onesimplehuman (talk • contribs) 01:34, 5 April 2007 (UTC).

I'm working on the following userbox if anyone wants it.
Any comments, suggestions, etc. can be left at my talk page.
-Leif902 22:10, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

This discussion is transcluded from Talk:George P. Burdell/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the reassessment.


### GA Sweeps: Pass
As part of the WikiProject Good Articles, we're doing Sweeps to go over all of the current GAs and see if they still meet the GA criteria. I went through the article and made various changes, please look them over. I believe the article currently meets the criteria and should remain listed as a Good article. Altogether the article is well-written and is still in great shape after its passing in 2007. Continue to improve the article making sure all new information is properly sourced and neutral. It would be beneficial to update the access dates for the sources. If you have any questions, let me know on my talk page and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I have updated the article history to reflect this review. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 18:37, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Hi there. I found a new link to the dead Georgia Tech article "Isn't that George on the Horn?" Reference twelve on the page, but I absolutely do not have the patience to try and figure out how to/if I even can fix it. If someone could add it, the URL is http://www.gtalumni.org/Publications/magazine/fall91/tech.html. Thanks!  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.38.3.13 (talk) 19:54, 17 November 2010 (UTC) 

Fixed. Thank you very much for finding this. - 2/0 (cont.) 20:10, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I found this article while cleaning up {{WikiProject Biography}} templates without a living= parameter.  I added living=no because as a fictious person, he is not living.  Looking at WikiProject Biography the scope says, "...the project does not cover other animals or fictitious persons (such as pseudonyms) or fictional characters.""  Should this project be removed from the article?  GB fan (talk) 19:09, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

If you want to remove it from that project, go ahead. It was added back in 2006 FYI. —Disavian (talk/contribs) 19:20, 17 May 2011 (UTC)

I think it would be important to clarify that the given history on here is just the story and not the actual history. There isn't much separation between Burdell and his creator. The article mentions Smith created Burdell, enrolled him in the same classes, did all the same work, etc. But did Smith do all the same things (military, basketball, etc)? I got really confused. Perhaps instead of "history" it could be "origins" and "story" (or something about the alleged accomplishments). Jhunt47 (talk) 07:15, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

There's already an "origins" section. Disavian (talk) 22:57, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

George P. Burdell is often paged by first year marching band students during football games and also at airports, bars, and hotels. ☭ИΘИ ИΘЬЇS SΘLЦMтдлжЅТЦФФ 19:56, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
It means that he is asked for by name over some type of loudspeaker or other form of public address. For example: "Attention, George P. Burdell, please report to x." 24.237.130.239 (talk) 23:39, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Obama made a speech at Georgia Tech where he made a joke that George P. Burdell was supposed to introduce him but no one could find him.  The only sources are the President's schedule and a transcript of the speech.  No independent reliable sources have discussed this and it just seems like trivia.  I do not believe it belongs in the article.  -- GB fan 14:11, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

A couple of sources have been added, one is just another transcript of the speech, the other is from the Georgia Tech News Center and makes a passing mention of the use.  The accusation that was placed in the latest edit summary about me not thinking Whitehouse.gov being is not true.  I stated in a previous edit summary that no secondary reliable sources have mentioned the usage.  None of the sources are independent.  -- GB fan 14:17, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
Since no one has commented here that the information belongs, I will remove it again.  There is no significant coverage of this, just primary sources and Georgia Tech news.  -- GB fan 11:04, 5 April 2015 (UTC)
The standard you're applying is for sources establishing notability of an article subject. The sources provided are sufficient for verifying the statements, which doesn't require third party or independent coverage to cite a statement of fact. (This is why things like company and school websites are acceptable sources for info like profits, endowment size, number of employees/students, etc.) LaMenta3 (talk) 16:40, 5 April 2015 (UTC)
Yes, but is this notable enough to be included?  I still do not see that this is more than just college news of a joke.  Not something that belongs in an encyclopedia article.  Still no one has presented any reason here why it should be included.    -- GB fan 19:49, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
Yes, it is. It's a pretty instance that I'd want to include, and it's well sourced. Disavian (talk) 20:27, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
"George P Burdell" seems to be a college joke. Very notable people acknowledging a college joke seems noteworthy of a legacy. Also, it appears half the references on this page are Georgia Tech news sources, a lot would have to be stripped out if Georgia Tech news or a tangential Georgia Tech entity is not considered good enough coverage of a fact. 02:01 15, June 2015 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.15.165.130 (talk • contribs) 

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It has been a while since this article has been reviewed, so I took a look and noticed that there is an "update needed" orange banner in the "Legacy" section. The lead also doesn't summarise all major aspects of the article. Should this article go to WP:GAR? Z1720 (talk) 03:05, 23 November 2025 (UTC)