What is a Hokie?
I have heard of a hoagie (and grinders), but the mascot of Virginia Tech is a Hokie. I have researched the Internet and looked through dictionaries but have had no luck. Please help. — Still72 Ask anyone who should know better, including some professional sportscasters, and you will hear that it’s the name of a turkey, specifically a castrated turkey, referring to their goofy-looking mascot. That’s the first answer I found searching the Internet, too. Then my astute co-worker Gary turned me onto the straight dope about the Hokie. A little more searching, and I finally found a site that confirms his story. It’s not related to the turkey at all. Virginia Agriculture and Mechanical College became Virginia Polytechnic in the late 1800s, and they needed a new college cheer, among other things. “Hokie” was a word invented by O.M. Stull, a student who won the $5 prize for his original college cheer in a spirit contest in 1896. It has absolutely no meaning, according to the author. Old Hokie H
The origin of the word “Hokie” has nothing to do with a turkey. It was coined by O. M. Stull (class of 1896), who used it in a spirit yell he wrote for a competition. Here’s how that competition came to be held. Virginia Tech was founded in 1872 as a land-grant institution and was named Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1896, the Virginia General Assembly officially changed the college’s name to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute, a name so long that citizens shortened it in popular usage to VPI. The original college cheer, which made reference to the original name of the institution, was no longer suitable. Thus, a contest was held to select a new spirit yell, and Stull won the $5 top prize for his cheer, now known as Old Hokie: Hoki, Hoki, Hoki, Hy. Techs, Techs, V.P.I. Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah. Polytechs – Vir-gin-ia. Rae, Ri, V.P.I. Later, the phrase “Team! Team! Team!” was added at the end, and an “e” was added to “Hoki.” Stull later sa
The Virginia Tech Hokies have been in the news lately due to the success of their football team. Finally, they ended up losing to Florida State in the National Championship game. Instead of trying to settle the game on the field, perhaps Virginia Tech should have tried quizzing the Seminole football team on the origin of the word Hokie. That’s a battle they might have won. To begin our quest, we did a Yahoo! search on the word Hokie and got the Virginia Tech Athletics category. Browsing to the Athletics main page, we clicked on the link for hokiesportsinfo.com. After some trial and error, we spied a link to Hokie Spirit. From there, we were able to get to the bottom of the whole Hokie mess. We found the answer on a page entitled, “What’s a Hokie?” It turns out a Hokie isn’t anything at
