Wednesday, September 17, 2014

What's a Hokie?

Here's an interesting factoid I learned. At church, of all places.

Because we're a small congregation, we had been asking for prayers about our job search for months. Matt just informed our church family that he had gotten his new job, and that we were moving.

And apparently, one of our friends, who is a professor at A&M, thought it was hilarious that he was going to be a Hokie. (That's Virginia Tech's mascot.) And gleefully chose to inform him what a Hokie actually is.
And Matt decided to tell me right in the middle of the sermon. Our pastor just started a series on the Seven Deadly Sins, and this week we were talking about Sloth.

Matt pulled the bulletin I was doodling on over to his lap, and wrote:

"[FRIEND] told me that a Hokie is a castrated turkey."

It took all I had to not snort during the middle of Sloth.

I'm sorry … but WHAT? A turkey is like, the worst mascot ever. Why on earth would anyone choose a team mascot to be a turkey with no, erm, Butterballs?

Virginia Tech's official stance is that a Hokie has nothing to do with turkeys. Urban Dictionary says Virginia Tech's stance is an elaborate hoax and/or conspiracy theory to cover up the existence of a Loch Ness Monster-style turkey that lives in the mountains. But Texas A&M is an agricultural school, so it's possible our professor friend is also correct — at least as far as what a castrated turkey is officially called — even if VT disagrees with it.

Whatever it is, it makes me laugh. :)

What is your favorite team mascot, for awesomeness reasons or humorous ones?

10 comments

  1. Ha, that is hilarious! I went to UTSA (UT San Antonio) and their mascot is the roadrunner. The version that appears at sports events looks a lot like that guy you're standing next to.

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  2. Katie @ A Beautiful Little AdvSeptember 17, 2014 at 11:12 AM

    Ha! I never knew that was what a Hookie was, great story of you laughing in church. I went to Washington College in Maryland - back then our mascot was George Washington (fitting since he founded the school and all) but now it's a goose....seriously...a GOOSE! haha.

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  3. Oh my word. That's too funny. I don't have a favorite mascot, but mine are all birds, so that's weird. Elementary school: Roadrunners. Middle school: Eagles. High school: Falcons. And the college we were the panthers, which eat birds (?). I don't know.

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  4. The UC Santa Cruz mascot is the Banana Slug! What a weird mascot!

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  5. At least roadrunners are fast … I always think of the Roadrunner and Coyote! Meep meep!

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  6. LOL, why change a perfectly good, stately mascot to something silly that waddles!

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  7. All legit mascots. See, these are winners! Haha.

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  8. WTF! What the heck is a banana slug?!

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  9. this is one of the funniest blog posts i've read; i would have laughed out loud and in church, and i'm pretty sure i'm going to be thinking of butterballs (or a lack thereof) all day...

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  10. As an actual Hokie I can tell you- it's not true. It's something that UVa students made up. "Hokie" just means "yeehaw" or "woohoo"- it's just a cheer. We adopted the "Hokie Hi" cheer when our mascot was "The Fighting Gobblers" (so yes, the turkey) and because Tech fans became known for shouting "Hokie" all the time, the name stuck. (Sounds slightly more impressive than "Gobbler", I guess.) So cool that you're down in my former neck of the woods- hope you're enjoying it!

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