VT

The background you see here is of the Virginia Tech campus in
Blacksburg, VA. The many buildings in this picture have the world
famous and highly recognizable HOKIE STONE exterior which is a
limestone indigenous to SW Virginia. No two stones are alike. The
BOV decreed in the 1990's that it must appear on all campus
buildings at Virginia Tech and gives Tech it's unique appearance.

One of the first things I am usually asked by anyone not completely familiar with VT is, "What is a Hokie?"
The origin of the word "Hokie" has nothing to do with a turkey (as many rumors suggest). It was coined by
VT student, 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, an "e" was added to "Hoki," and the s was
dropped from Techs and Polytechs. This edited form is the version that is still in use today at the university.

Stull later said that he made up the word as an attention-grabber. Though he may not have known it,
"Hokie" (in its various forms) has been around at least since 1842. According to Johann Norstedt, now a
retired Virginia Tech English professor, "[Hokie was] a word that people used to express feeling, approval,
excitement, surprise. Hokie, then, is a word like 'hooray,' or 'yeah,' or 'rah.'" Whatever its original meaning,
the word in the popular cheer did, as Stull wanted, grab attention and has been a part of Virginia Tech
tradition ever since.