The details of my life are quite inconsequential... My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery....
uh, my bad. Got my story confused with Dr. Evil again. My dad was actually a police officer in Fairfax, VA which is where I grew up. I knew i wanted to be an architect pretty early on (or, really, that I wanted to draw pictures instead of getting a regular degree with right answers that you had to remember for final exams). As the son of a cop, I also knew that I wasn't going out of state for College. So, I only applied to VT (I was real dumb at 16/17) and thankfully got accepted in the architecture program in 98. This was just in time to have the 99 team inject college football directly into my veins.
My brother is 1 year older and was a Sophomore at Tech when I started in 98. We weren't close in high school (he was a super talented athlete and I was a soon-to-be-collegiate jackass (more on that soon) but we became super tight at Tech. The next year, our cousin transferred to VT from NCSU which meant that 60% of the people in our generation are Hokies.
Like all good stories of jackassery, mine begins with a dare. One day in the spring of our junior year, my roommate, a Hokie cheerleader, announced to our apartment that mascot tryouts were starting that night and claimed, in so many words, that I wasn't man enough to go. I had to prove him wrong so, three weeks, a bunch of dancing, a ton of sweat, and one massive bellyflop into an empty kiddie pool on the floor of Cassell later, I became the Hokiebird (along with 3 of the funniest people you will ever meet). We got to experience the '01 and '02 seasons through the sweat soaked, mesh covered eyes of the Bird.
The birds are technically 'athletes' and as such we had the privilege of working out in Jamerson with the real Olympic sports athletes. I got to meet so many cool people there that I wouldnt have otherwise met squirreled away in the depths of the architecture buildings. Most importantly, I met Mrs Mas Scott who was a trainer with football team and a strength and conditioning coach there.
Fast forward 20 years, she and I and our English Lab named Lane (you already know how she got her name) live in Bethany Beach, Delaware. I started and we run an architecture firm with offices here and in Philly that focuses on sustainable design. I also co-started an uninformed, irregularly recorded, and horribly produced podcast with two other Hokies called Bird Brains. you may (emphasis on may) hear us this fall ... if we get around to it.
Wanna know more? well, ya know, AMA
Comments
How cool to have been the Hokiebird! What was your favorite opposition mascot to interact with during football games?
And did you do it for multiple sports? Only football? Only basketball?
Were there many non game activities you were required to be at?
Did it take a lot of time away from academics and other social pursuits?
Did you ever do a game somewhat drunk?
Favorite mascot to interact with during a VT game wasn't from the opposition but it was when the Carolina Panthers' Sir Purr came back (he was a former hokiebird). We had a dance off at halftime. He crushed me (pros are pros) but I did the worm better.
Favorite non Hokie game was playing in a college vs pros mascot full contact football game at halftime of a panthers preseason game. Compared to most mascots, i'm a big guy. the pros were so scared to get tackled by the bird that they hid half the suit from me. They didnt have much to worry about though, the size 22 basketball shoes, limited field of vision, and massive stomach of bird makes it pretty tough to use the hit stick
yep, we were required to be at every men's and women's basketball games and as many olympic sports games/ matches as we could handle. Back then, we weren't required at a whole lot of non game things (other than a pep rally) but for $100 you could get one of us to a wedding or a ribbon cutting or the like
Academics, only a little if we flew to an away game or a tournament. Being the bird might be the only letter winning 'sport' that required absolutely no practice. I was looked at pretty sideways in the architecture department tho since most of the professors there thought sports (and most outside activity) was a waste. Socially, it kept me from drinking on game weekends but i still hung out so i didnt miss anything and it meant that I couldnt sit with my crew for home games but, otherwise, it added a lot to my social calendar
me, no. I'm a huge lightweight and you lose a ton of water when you're in the suit. By saturday night, I would be hungover from dehydration. So, i stuck to water all weekend on a game week. A couple of the other guys tho... they were a little better about mixing haha
Don't remember if the Hokiebird was involved but do remember in the early 80s, the San Dego Chicken came to a Hokies game and the student side passed him from the field level to the top row 5P; at that point a drunken cry went up " See if the chicken can fly!". Fortunately, soberer heads prevailed, and he was quickly lowered to his feet, and he beat a hasty retreat to the field lol.
I think they stopped passing the bird up the east stands right after I graduated. I did it one time. It was a rare opportunity since you had to be the bird during the 2nd half of a blowout and we didnt blow a lot of teams out during the Grant Noel years. BUT, riding up a sea people to the top of the world with nothing (especially not sobriety) to stop them from throwing you over was a one and done kind of thing for me. Glad i got to experience it. Happy that i never have to do it again
What was the weirdest, most awkward Hokiebird moment you had while interacting with fans?
Part B, what's the weirdest, most awkward Hokiebird moment you had while interacting with the athletes?
there's a lot to work with here. A lot of it centers around the fact that the only place we have to get ready for an away game is in the football locker room. That means we sit there, half dressed like a maroon turkey at halftime while the coaches upbraid the players (usually to keep them focused when we're winning) and, even though none of us looked like we belonged in a football locker room, we had to shower with the team before getting back on the team plane.
Off the top of my head,
2002 at home vs #16 Marshall. One of the other birds and I got the idea to have one of us (me) dress up in a cow costume with a sign around the neck saying "thundering herd" while the other, dressed as the bird, lead me around the field on a leash. We had no real plan and I'm not even totally sure that there was a joke there but we went for it. Turns out, you don't really feel the crowd looking at you when you're in the bird suit but you definitely feel the eyes when 60k people focus on you in a one size too small cow costume complete with udders and a bonnet for ears. It also led to a for real fight with the actual Marshall mascot during the 2nd half since he didn't find it funny at all.
It also led to a for real fight with the actual Marshall mascot
Please elaborate...
So, in the second half me and, we'll call him Jon, switched. He got in the cow costume and I became the bird. I led him over to the south endzone where the Marshall cheerleaders and the mascot were. Now normally both teams are in on it and, it works like this. Home team mascot goads the away team mascot into a fight. Away gets a few blows in but the home team makes a dramatic comeback, good triumphs over evil, and we all live happily ever after. The bird juicing the orange is a classic example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTIypZqUrB0
In this case, we didn't a) know that Conference USA prohibited mascot fights (because they turned into actual fights) and that b) the marshall mascot was (or at least seemed to be) pissed about the cow costume. He jumped me the moment we got near him and started throwing punches. Getting in an actual fight is a good way to get suspended so I kept my wits about me, threw him to the side and didnt throw a punch. When I got back to the tunnel, we shared the story with the AD and I bragged that I could have beat him easily. She told me i couldn't. Nothing like a middle aged woman telling you would have lost a fight to a guy in a buffalo costume.
At least you didn't have the REAL bison take a running start at you...
leading the team out of the tunnel felt just as life threatening!
Who was your favorite professor in the school (and Bill Greene totally counts. I didn't want to limit it to just arch professors). Who was your least favorite (if you don't want to speak ill of anyone in writing, skip this part.)
How many times did you cut yourself with xacto knives?
Who is your favorite architect? Whose work do you despise?
If you had the freedom to chose any project you wanted, what would it be?
And a greedy question for my own purposes...
Do you know any structural engineers in the Blacksburg area looking for a job?
Bill G. is the man. My Favorites were Jay Stoekel (RIP) and Steve Thompson. Jay made me earn it (I've never been more proud of a B minus. And Steve made me think in ways that made me a better architect and presenter. Least favorite was a 2nd year professor that didn't last long in the college. She was just way too artsy and out there for me (and probably the college)
just once but it was enough. Sliced through the tip of my left index finger. Drove myself to the hospital where they not so promptly cut it the rest of the way off with scissors which hurt way worse. If i had known that was the plan, i would have finished the job with the Olfa!
All time: Louis Kahn
Alive: Jeanne Gang
Despise: Zaha
who's yours?
anything without a client haha! Seriously though, we've been really lucky with some great projects here locally and on the east coast. I'd love to do something out in the Rockies - mostly as an excuse to ski more.
Dont know any structural guys in the burg but i'll ask around
Alvar Aalto and Jean Prouve are probably my all timers. Alive is sort of iffy. I don't have anyone that I just love their catalog. Axel Schultes created features in two different buildings that I love. Zumthor has his moments.
Do not like Zaha, Gehry, and a handful of others. But I find myself more disappointed by no name folks that just half ass a lot of their projects.
totally agree. I started our firm when we moved to Delaware because I'm a workaholic and there wasnt a firm nearby that i wanted to give that much energy to
Wanted to add, we had a hokie bird in architecture in '09 as well. Most of us knew about it. But, I think a few were still shocked when he went across stage.
it was the worst kept secret when I was there too. I wasted a golden opportunity to do the worm on the Burruss stage but our college ceremony was unnecessarily reserved and I tried not to show out too much
Why were there 4 of you? Are you telling me that Batman is actually 4 people, too?
Four Batman? I thought there had been at least 6!
1. Adam West
2. Michael Keaton
3. Val Kilmer
4. George Clooney
5. Christian Bale
6. That guy from the sparkly vampire movies...
Adam West – Batman (1966)
Michael Keaton – Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), The Flash (2023)
Kevin Conroy – Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Val Kilmer – Batman Forever (1995)
George Clooney – Batman & Robin (1997)
Christian Bale – Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Ben Affleck – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), Justice League (2017), Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), The Flash (2023)
Will Arnett – The Lego Batman Movie (2017)
Robert Pattinson – The Batman (2022)
Keanu Reeves – DC's League of Super-Pets (2022)
oh yeah, there's usually 4. At one point we had 5 because one guy stayed for an extra semester. It takes 3 birds to do a home game (more if we're involved in a halftime show). One person works the tailgates before the game. One person does the first half and the other does the 2nd. The 4th bird essentially gets the week off so they can watch the game from the field or in the stands (but they do the pep rally during the week - did y'all even know there's a pep rally? It was very lightly attended).
No clue there were pep rallies...but then I was there from 1983-88 so don't know if they existed then...
They were held in front of the old Donaldson Brown across from squires on a Thursday before a Saturday game. If you weren't walking by, you wouldnt have known it was happening. And, if you happened to walk by, you wouldn't have stopped.
I used to attend them when I lived on campus as freshman but that was about it.
pretty sure that in 1973 there was only one; a young lady; but it was also a different bird (the long neck)
Yup, meet Bryan Randall there
Whats the most almost arrested you've been?
Did you impress future Mrs. Mas Scott with your Hokiebird moves?
In high school, i tried to race a cop in my '89 Pontiac Bonneville. It wasn't a cool car but it was dark, i didnt know it was a cop, and he was trying to pass me on a two lane road before it became a one lane road. Plus, ya know, i was 16. Mercifully he turned the lights on before I could really putt the hammer down and thankfully it turned out he knew my dad from his time in the department. Sent me home and told me he was going to call my parents. Spent just a little time grounded... bright side though, he never passed me!
The most almost arrested the bird has ever been was when two of my boys were accused of starting the "riot" before the 2002 LSU game. Both of them, independently, decided it would be a good idea to grab the suit and make their way to main street. One walked (he was possibly not sober) and was turned away at the corner of college ave. The other rode on the back of a jeep down main and the crowd closed like a zipper behind them... Both were suspended for multiple games after the state police and the AD blamed the 'riot' on the bird.
She has a good German sense of humor so she's a tough crowd but I still get her from time to time and i always consider it a huge win. Honestly though, i think she was impressed that i stuck to the gym despite the fact that it wasnt required and had nothing to do with being a better bird
If the person whom I wanted to be my future spouse was a trainer, I'd spend more time at the gym, too!
am i a total ding dong for it taking me until this thread to realize that Mas Scott = "mascot"?
did i just whiff entirely on the spreadsheet?
no one expects the Spanish Inquisition
I've heard tales of this spreadsheet but haven't seen it. Need to up my lurking game
First rule of the TKP spreadsheet is that there is no TKP spreadsheet.
The second rule of the TKP spreadsheet is that there is no TKP spreadsheet [wink wink]
I'd imagine the entry for me had some interesting updates after my AMA lol.
I don't think anyone saw the Premium Brand saltines requirement coming. Definitely out of left field.
I'd say the most eye opening part was the sheer amount of peanut butter that you consume. I think everyone here knew you liked peanut butter but I don't think we knew the scale of it
What's your favorite sound?
What's your guilty pleasure?
If you're going to watch a Hokie football game at home on the TV, what's your preferred time slot and why?
If you could remove one thing from existence in the world, what would be? It could be a person past or present, a thing, an emotion, .....anything.
Favorite sound - the silence when it snows
Guilty pleasure - not that I feel guilty about it but I live on candy. I'm basically buddy the elf
Favorite TV game time - 7pm. Even though nooners are easier, I want us in the big games under the lights
One thing to remove - Peter Warrick
Peter Warrick? Ouch. I can still hear the bevy of Florida State fans around us chanting his name late in the 4th quarter as they slammed the door on our dreams. Peeee-ter Warrrr-ick over and over and over and....
We'd have at least one natty without him. Maybe more.
Our daughter's BFF (basically our second son) was USF's Rocky the Bull for awhile and won the bowl season challenge (Capitol One?) one year. Got a trip to China out of it. Did they have anything like that when you were "birding"?
I got to fly to Bristol for two days of filming Sportscenter commercials summer between 4th and 5th years. Met some cool people, (SVP is as real as he seems on TV) and ended up in the background of the American Cheese SC commercial. It was two really long, super boring days but an amazing trip at the same time
We used to go to Bethany all the time and I saw SVP there a couple times with his family (usually around the bandstand area). Seemed really down to earth.
He is. He and John Anderson took time out of their days to talk with me and a few of the other mascots sitting around the offices waiting to hopefully maybe be included in a shot. SVP hit me with the first verse of tech triumph when he saw me half dressed like the bird. Those guys know soooooo much about sports
If you could Hokiebird at a neutral game (i.e. Tech's not playing, but you get full sideline/crowd access), where is the Hokiebird showing up?
What a great question! For sure It would be a huge college game with a ton of energy and stakes like the auburn Alabama kick 6 game.
If it couldn't be that, it would be something where Loluva got embarrassed like the first round of the NCAA tournament vs UMBC
Oh we also went to the mascot national championships in Daytona Beach one year. It sounds ridiculous and it is. We finished 3rd or 4th out of 5 mascots but that didn't matter. What did matter is that we were in Daytona and it was filled with college cheerleaders and dancers from all over the country.
Did we score? No. Could we have? not a chance. Was it a fun time for dreams? You bet
Hokiebird in 2001, now I know 2 of you! I went to high school with Liam
So cool! I did the WVU away game in 2001 with Liam when he proposed to his fiancé in the stands. Liam is one of the most off the wall people I have ever met
I was at that game with friends and the whole section seemed like it was my high school so everyone knew and we were all cheering even though I was the only VT fan.
And agree about Liam. His wife and my sister were good friends in high school. And he and I ran in similar circles so we often hung out.
Small world. I met Liam last year. Our kids are on robotics team together in Morgantown. Probably one of the smartest and nicest guys you'll ever meet.
And his wife is just as smart and nice.
Yes. She has her PHD and teaches Chemistry at WVU.
So does that mean you are from Bridgeport, KingJames?
yes
I guess you would have been just a couple years late to meet Curtis Dvorak. Did you ever hear any legends of past Hokie Bird mascots?
Curtis is a legend. I never met him but our AD had pictures of him all over her office
:looks at "mas scott" screen name
:processing...
:processing...
glad i wasn't the only power user to evidently be late to the game in piecing it together
Whenever I do anything kind of dumb I remind myself that it took my Dad 40 years to get the "silly English K-nig-it" joke in the Holy Grail.
what constitutes a 'power user'?
i guess everyone around now qualifies
This statement made me sad.
i will choose to be unhappy about this news
Sometimes I think about how much time I dedicated to marching band for 8 years of my life and how it's not something that you can realistic still do as an adult after college. I have no regret in doing it, but seems a little unfortunate that there's no real place to continue with it in the "real" world. Do you ever have the urge to suit up for a game or gig again? Where any professional mascot gigs ever considered after college?
I'm pretty sure you're saying "high school + college," but my very first scan read that as 8 years in the MVs.
a lot of people go to school for 7 years
- tommy boy
- MVhokie69 (probably)
Only 4 years in the MVs, although I know someone who was close to 8 in the MVs. That being said while I do have a bachelor's degree, I have 5 years clocked in at college... next month begins the process of 4ish more. What's also concerning is one of my high school band director's told me I looked and acted like Chris Farley and I started college fall of 2011 and graduated spring of 2019. (with a few years off in the middle). There are more parallels here than I'd prefer.
I had a roommate who was in the MVs for, checks watch, 7 years. He did 5 years undergrad (albeit for two degrees) then two more to get his masters. He said the 5th year was ok because he still knew people who had co-oped or something and were still familiar to him. 6th year was rough because he was the weird old guy trying to meet younger people in the band who all had more organic connections. 7th year was fun again as those relationships became more comfortable. It's really hard to try to extend a 4 year experience to almost twice that when noone else is.
I crammed 4 years into 5 years and a summer semester course. Turns out I was not a good student.
Being the bird is similar except that it requires essentially no practice and my only skills were an innate ability to be an idiot and the willingness to wear a fleece suit drenched in someone(s) else's sweat so the amount of time invested doesn't compare to the band or really any other thing
A lot of pro mascots are well paid so there was definitely a lure but I talked with a few of them and they all said that it was only worth doing if you wanted a career in something like marketing (which is essentially the mascot's Monday - Friday role in a professional organization . Otherwise, there was very little job security. If the person in the suit gets hurt, they stuff a new body in there the next day or the quarter
But i did suit up one more a year or two after i graduated. Still knew the birds and all of the on field security guys (the biggest, nicest people you'll ever meet) so i made my way down through the tunnel when I was back for a game against, i wanna say, Duke. Put the suit back on when one the bird needed a break. Ran out to the field during a time out and did the worm for old time's sake.
That's when i realized that the thing i loved most about being the bird was the camaraderie with the other 3 birds and that wasn't the same with the new crew. The whole goal was to make the other 3 guys laugh. We never worried about what the crowd thought. Hung up the feet for good right there. I dont even dress up for halloween
What smells in your life have rivaled the smell inside the hokie bird costume?
Have you ever burned your hand worse than the 125 degree packet of relish you picked up at The Rookery when we made the turn earlier this month?
Best and worst things for you about owning your own business?
nothing comes close. Takes two showers to start to wash that stink off of you
no object on planet earth has ever been hotter than that packet of relish
One of the best things about owning a business is the sense of accomplishment that comes from building something bigger than just the design of a single project.
Worst things: My answer probably changes every week but right now it's probably that i spend way more time talking to people, pushing paper, and problem solving than i spend drawing. When i was a sole practitioner, all i did was draw and make site visits. But, the good far outweighs the bad (usually)
Thanks Scott! Got a nominee? Or do you want to see who the community wants? We have time for another one or two before the football news ramps up-
I'll let you workshop it. Thanks for asking me to do it!
Ok community...who you want?
Edit-bumping for nominations.....
Anyone have a full list of the first 34 for the senile old farts who can't remember who has already volunteered?
Edit- I think I have them all up to date now.
1 Hokietopher
2 dcwilson 40
3 Fernleyhokie
4 Senjohnblutarsky
5 Ltrepeter2000
6 VTnerf
7 LancerHokie
8 SoupHokie09
9 bar1990
10 GGC
11 Chazz Michael Michaezz
12 Highty Tighty
13 APFOW
14 H_ighlander_okie
15 MaroonX2
16 French
17 Little Bobby Tables
18 Kville Hokies
19 Frostys Dad
20 Egbert
21 Brewin
22 HokieFireman
23 HokieJeep
24 VPIhokieME
25 theMattBoard
26 Alum07
27 VTJ12
28 Gokartmozart
29 MVhokie69
30 maxANDCheese
31 8300A_Hokie'12
32 Skippypbm
33 Daveinop
34 Mas Scott
35 KIng James
How about Joe?
Or King James ?
How about it King James?
Sure thing
Not sure if Joe would be willing, bit I'd be fine with it....I mean, it is HIS site...
Is it possible (and not a metric s-ton of work) to hyperlink these to their respective threads?
Hmmm.. I guess I could do it...have to find them one at a time...
Is there some way to make the AMAs a top level Forum and then pull them into that so they are all in one place? Just spitballing without knowing the underlying code. Might be harder than I even imagine.
I'll work on adding links a few at a time....just have to go through my comments in reverse chronological order since I've commented on every thread.
Then I can just post an updated list now and then after every few AMA's.
Could work with an admin to create a thread with all the AMA's with links and close thr thread to comments and just have everyone link the thread at top of their ama. requires no code changes.