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Thanks for a run down of pre-game traditions. What about during game traditions? Things that don't seem to be a given anymore. Will those be in a later edition?

time for a last minute, first game at Lane trip!

Piggybacking on this comment - has there been any report as to what each team will get paid for this game? It would be hilariously dumb if they turned down the reported $20 million each in 2005 only to get like $2 million each in 2016, but this also isn't quite the marquee matchup it would have been eight years ago.

The Hokies will probably find themselves in quite a few third-and-shorts against the Panthers.

Thank God this isn't #LOLUVA week. Their 3rd down defense is the tits!

last game against UVA?

First off

and welcome to The Key Play.

Second thing, thanks for adding all that. I wanted to add more, but really you could write a book on just VT football history and traditions. I had never heard the gobblers story before. that's awesome!

High Peak sportswear on college ave. Right between Greenhouse and Jimmy John's.

Great list! Here are a couple more pieces of VT tradition/history still on display at games:

The Hokie Cheer: VPIs official history is that it was founded as the first land grant college in 1872. It was rededicated and renamed in 1896, at which time the current colors and the official cheer were chosen by the cadets. The Hokie cheer won, no doubt in part because it was written by the regimental commander. However, while the university claims that the word Hoki was a made-up attention getter, the term actually far pre-dates 1896 and has a long history of use in southwest Virginia area as shout of greeting by, and later a term referring to German speaking farmers in the mountains, later was used to refer to union loyalists stemming from the divisions of the local population during the Civil War. These included many of the administrators and cadets of Olin & Preston Institute, which was the precursor to VPI. The Institute went bankrupt as it tried to rebuild after the Civil War. After former Confederates regained control of the state government after reconstruction, they seized the bankrupt school and converted it into a state military college under the command of former Confederate Generals. The term Hoki became a taunt used towards the local Germanic population that was seen as unionist during and after the Civil War.

The Gobblers: VT cadets used to be required to eat their growly (food) at attention in 10 minutes, which was very difficult for rats (freshmen) as they had a junior officer screaming in their face the whole time. As a reward, they were occasionally given a few minutes to eat freely, which was known as gobbling. In the 1890s, football players were given double rations of growly and were not required to eat at attention to make sure they got it all down in 10-minute mess. Thus, they became known as gobblers.

Floyde Hard Times Meade: Hard Times was a local black orphan, about 6 years old, who is believed to have escaped from virtual slavery on a nearby plantation in the late 1890s. He was adopted by the corps and raised in #1 Barracks (Lane Hall), shifting him from room to room so that the commandant couldnt catch him. He would attend all home and away games dressed as a clown. He later found and tamed the worlds largest turkey and taught it to gobble on command during games. He would even ride in a cart pulled by the turkey ahead of the cadet march to the stadium. The commandant made him give up the cart as he felt it was cruel to the turkey, but he continued to attend games with the descendants of his giant turkey until his death in the 1940s.

The Highty Tighties: VPIs regimental band is over 120 years old. Unit folklore has it that name originated when Field Marshal Foch called out "Hoity-toity" to the band during a review after WWI when the drum major caught his mace on the bounce. The more likely story is that while waiting to be called to growly they would sing their 5 minutes to growly chreer "Highty-tighty Christ Almighty who the Hell are we? Riff-ram! God-damn! Were from division E!", which was derived from a football cheer. The chant noted that they were the only regimental company without a name, so all the other companies started calling them the highty tighties despite their objections. They are the winningest parade band in US history, winning virtually every competitive parade they have entered, including 3 consecutive first place finishes in the Presidential Inaugural Parade, after which they were declared Undisputed Grand Champions of the Inaugural Parade and the future parades were ruled non-competitive.

Skipper, the Worlds Largest Game Cannon: VPI, which for a time was the US largest artillery school, would fire cannon after rendering colors and upon a score. However, the artillery school cannon were moved to a nearby Army base at Radford during the years of Rad-Tech, when some cadets attended school on base while new dorms were built, and the school donated the ceremonial Civil War and Spanish-American War cannons (which the Highty Tighties smuggled back from Cuba) for scrap during WWII metal drives. VMI also lost their cannons after WWII, but were given a pathetic little mortar by the state in the 50s. VPI cadets, including Homer Hickman of October Sky fame, were sick of hear VMI Keydets chant Wheres your cannon! after they fired their little John each year at the VPI-VMI Annual Military Classic of the South game held each Thanksgiving in Roanoke. The Cadets secretly designed and built the worlds largest game cannon, forged out of cadets' brass buttons and buckles and brass from Homer Hickman's father's coal mine. They unveiled it after the Keydets started their chant, they pulled it out to the field and fired a triple charge, sending a visible shockwave across the field, knocking the covers off the closest keydets.

Very nice Joe, thanks for the scoop!

nike procombat features (usually) custom designs that can't be recreated and the biggest difference is the fly wire collar. All of VT's uni's, including the one we wore against alabama, are able to be created on nike's web site--I have done it before. I think what we have is nice, and I like the classic look--but look at UNC's uni's...those are pro-combat and they look it. Ours are the next best thing

I would venture to guess something along the lines of Ok St. Black unis with lots of orange piping and orange helmet.

My dad has told me countless times the epic story of how when he was a freshman at tech, he and other corp members attempted to steal one of VMI's cannons.