"Undaunted by the feathery coating of snow that slowly sifted into Miles Field this morning, the Virginia Tech Gobblers would up their more strenuous work today preparatory to the Turkey Day battle with the Flying Cadets of V.M.I.," the newspaper reported. 30, 1922, in the Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia) in a story that previewed a Virginia Tech-VMI football game. The oldest reference I could find to "Virginia Tech gobblers" on the database was on Nov. MORE: Here's the true story behind how Arizona got the nickname 'Wildcats' "I think that's probably how our HokieBird - that's why it's a turkey is because of the term 'Gobblers' and the live turkeys that used to come here to the games," Rozema said. Here's a picture of Meade with a turkey, courtesy of Virginia Tech's website. He actually started bringing live turkeys to the football games and he taught them how to do tricks, like flapping their wings and gobbling on command and walking them on a leash." "Because of the word 'Gobblers,' also having secondary meaning, the turkey, in 1913, Floyd Meade, who's probably the first mascot performer at Virginia Tech. I've read about four or five of them, but the most commonly repeated one is that the student-athletes were really voracious eaters and they would just gobble up their food and so they just starting becoming known as the Gobblers, unofficially, and by about 1912 it was an official term for the team. "We actually were known was the 'Gobblers' for a very long time, officially, starting in about 1908, 1909, and there's several different stories as to why we were known as the Gobblers. "The HokieBird, how it became a turkey is actually kind of a long morph, you know?" said Laurel Rozema, a processing and special projects archivist for Virginia Tech's university libraries. Virginia Tech athletic teams used to be called the "Chappies," "Techs," "Techmen," and "Gobblers," according to the school's website, in reference to the school's mascot, which has evolved from a turkey to the "HokieBird." What was Virginia Tech called before the 'Hokies'? Here's the origin story about how Virginia Tech became the Hokies. ![]() I have asked them where the term 'Hokies' comes from, and they seem either unwilling or unable to give me a satisfactory explanation." In a lifestyle column published in the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia, in August 1990, one reader wrote in to the paper, "I have a number of friends who are Virginia Tech graduates. There's a chance that some Hokie fans or students may not even know where the term came from! While it's now the nickname for the school with an official definition of "a loyal Virginia Tech fan," according to the school, the word itself was made up two centuries ago. Because 125 years ago, "Hokies" didn't exist. If you've ever watched Virginia Tech compete in an athletic event and wondered, "What is a Hokie?" you're probably not alone.
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