A couple of weeks ago, I attended an event sponsored by the Tidewater Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association. There, a man by the name of Dr. James Robertson (an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech) gave a speech entitled “Reflections of the Civil War”. It was fantastic – I find myself enjoying these sorts of things nowadays.
What I found most interesting though were his remarks regarding the tragedy of April 16th, 2007. He spoke of the incredible sadness that befell the entire university and how the faculty really weren’t sure how many students would return to class the following Monday when classes resumed. He told his story of walking into his first class that morning, where typically the lecture hall would be filled with the sound of students chatting back and forth, but instead there was complete silence and every single set of eyes laid upon him, wondering what he would say. He said that he asked everyone if they knew anyone that had died, and about one hundred hands went up. He then asked who felt as if they knew someone that died, and up went the remaining hands. The rest of the class was spent listening to students recant stories of friends lost on that tragic day, and Dr. Robertson said it was an extremely emotional time and one of the most memorable of his forty year teaching career.
At that point, he turned his attention to the fall and the upcoming football season. Having spent sixteen seasons as an ACC football referee, he has a real passion for the game. He pointed at everyone in the room and told us that we had no right to boo anyone this fall. This is because just about every university and college in the country showered Virginia Tech with cards, gifts, money, etc. after April 16th, and some are still giving. Before the first home game against, ECU is going to present a check to Tech for $100,000. He said most people would recognize the generosity and not boo, but then how do you stop, in his words, the “rednecks and drunks”? He then detailed a letter he had written to Jim Weaver with his idea on how to curtail everyone from booing.
His idea is let the Hokie football team come out first onto the field. Then have the team line up on either side of the visitor’s locking room as they come out onto the field. Everyone will be so pumped up and cheering the Hokie football team that they won’t feel like booing the opponent’s team – at least that’s the idea. He didn’t say whether Jim Weaver had responded to this idea or not.
He then mentioned one last thing. The actual name of the university is quite a mouthful, so much so that it doesn’t even fit on letterhead with a standard font size. With the phrase “We are Virginia Tech” gaining notoriety, everyone now knows us as Virginia Tech. He is on a committee that is looking into changing the official name of the school from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University to simply, Virginia Tech State University. He said it is likely that this will happen.
So there you have it. I agree with him that we shouldn’t boo anyone at our games this fall, but I’m not sure if Weaver will be up for our team coming out first. I’m not sure what to think about changing the name of the school. I mean, it’s been VPI&SU for so long that it’s almost a badge of honor that our school name is so convoluted. It probably won’t mater much to me either way, but it will be interesting to see which way is decided.