What’s a Hokie?

If you go to Virginia Tech, you've probably been asked this question at least a dozen times. You know how real the struggle of explaining our wonderful mascot to people is. Often, they won’t take “the best mascot ever” as an answer. Your conversation might look a little bit like this:

"Okay, so what is a Hokie exactly?"

"The most magical animal ever, even more so than a unicorn"

"Isn't it like a turkey?"

"I mean, yeah, I guess it’s similar to a turkey"

"So it is just a turkey?:

"No it is definitely not 'just a turkey'. Stop calling it a turkey, it's much more majestic."

"So its not like a real animal is it? Are there Hokies in the wild?"

"Yes, I guess technically it is a made up animal"

"Does it gobble? Why don't you just call it a turkey. I mean, it looks like a turkey.

"Yes, it does indeed gobble. But we don’t call it a turkey because its NOT a turkey. Although maybe the turkey is a distant relative...God fine, what’s a Hokie? I AM."

For those of you who are curious, ‘Hokie’ really is a made up word. A guy named O.M. Stull pulled it out of his imagination back in 1896 while writing a spirit chant for a contest. It stuck. And we were left with our beautiful Hokie Bird. The official definition for a “Hokie” is “a loyal Virginia Tech fan”.

Being a Hokie is having your phone auto-correct "homie" to "hokie". It's wholeheartedly believing we are good enough to beat Ohio State University in football (again). It's waiting an awkwardly long amount of time holding the door open for someone, but not really minding it 'cause it's just what we do (Ut Pro-ism, my friend). It's listening to your family make jokes at Thanksgiving about how you're eating your mascot (even though we've been over that it is not a turkey. Several times). It's loving your school whether its 100 degrees or -22 when you're walking to class. It's experiencing it snowing upwards on the drill field. It's stopping and taking a second to appreciate how lucky you are when you pass the pylons. It's having your breath taken away when you look at Burrus at sunset. It's not honking at a bad driver once you see their VT sticker. It's hating UVA with a passion. It's having the best food in the country. Which means you aren't judged for the 9 plates of food you get at D2. It's being a part of the strongest community that can overcome anything. It means having 66,233 best friends rocking Lane Stadium with you on game day. Being hokie is fearlessly shouting "Let's Goooo" at a random person wearing maroon and orange...and them screaming "Hooooookies!" in return. It's more than a bird that people refuse to accept as anything but a turkey. It's family.

Being a Hokie means being able to sum all of that up by simply saying, "I am."