Fan Friendly Fridays - Hokie edition

The other day, Sarah and I were discussing something related to college football and Virginia Tech came up. As you may or may not know, the athletic teams at VT are the "Hokies". But what is a "hokie?" Well, as I have struggled for blog ideas the past couple weeks, when Sarah and I discussed this very question the other day, I thought it would make for a good FFF post.

The following is a condensed version of the story behind "Hokie" as found on the Virginia Tech website.

Virginia Tech was founded in 1872 and was originally named Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1896, the school's name changed to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnical Institute, which was so long that locals started referring to the school as "VPI".

With the chance in the official name of the school, the school cheer was no longer suitable and thus a contest was held for a new spirit yell. The contest was won by O. M. Stull, Class of 1896. The cheer, now known as The Old Hokie, goes:
Hoki, Hoki, Hoki, Hy.
Techs, Techs, V.P.I.
Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah.
Polytechs - Vir-gin-ia.
Rae, Ri, V.P.I.

Later on, Team! Team! Team! was added on to the end of the cheer.

Stull said that he made up the word "hoki" to be an attention grabber. However, due to the popularity of the cheer, "hokie" (with the e added later) has remained a part of the Virginia Tech tradition ever since. With the new school name and cheer, Virginia Tech changed its colors to the burnt orange and Chicago maroon worn to this day.

Be looking forward to next week as I am hoping to have my first guest columnists featured on Stepping Up.