Not at Tech, but did something similar as part of military water survival training.

It's less about swimming than it is managing panic and anxiety. I could see how it would be daunting if you were a novice or non-swimmer, but if you're more than just a little confident in the water it's not that big a deal. Much of the reason we're still hearing about it probably has to do with reasoning like, "Hell, when I was a RAT, Freshman Hill was uphill both ways!"

It's just as well that Tech quit teaching it when they did, the technique had been mostly abandoned (or, depending on the training curriculum, at least significantly expanded and/or adapted) by most of the military by then in favor more modern techniques. It turns out that if you find yourself in the water for more than just a few minutes with no means of getting to shelter, hypothermia/body heat management become pretty important for survival, and the "drownproofing" technique doesn't do a great job of this.