One of the most important and symbolic structures on campus, The Pylons above War Memorial Chapel bear the names of every Virginia Tech student and graduate who died defending our nation’s freedom, beginning with those lost during World War I.

The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets became official in the 1890s, drawing from the university’s origin in 1872 and its required military training for students. Mandated four-year participation in the corps for all males changed to two years in 1923 — the same year women were first admitted — and then participation became voluntary in 1964.

“Skipper” is named for President John F. Kennedy, who had been a PT-boat skipper. Today, Skipper is fired at football games and for other notable occasions.

The famed Virginia Tech lunch pail symbolizes the blue-collar approach of the Hokies’ football defense, developed by assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Bud Foster. Foster’s Lunch Pail Defense Foundation provides scholarships for high school students from the New River and Roanoke valleys, as well as assisting the families of those awaiting organ transplants.

Hokies were once called “Gobblers,” a nickname whose origin is widely disputed. One story claims it resulted from the way student athletes would “gobble” up their food. The name was already popular when Floyd Meade, a local resident, trained a large turkey to pull a cart at a football game in 1913. Throughout the years, trained turkeys would continue to gobble on command and perform stunts. In 1962, a student raised $200 for a costume; the result was an unusual turkey with a cardinal-like head, known as the Gobbler and then the Fighting Gobbler.