HokieHaven.com - Memory Lane: VPIGUY's First Game At Lane Stadium

August 2, 2012

Memory Lane

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In our series of stories from you, our readers, HokieHaven.com subscriber VPIGUY recalls his first game at Lane Stadium in 2006.

My first Virginia Tech game was homecoming in 1988. We were playing South Carolina. It was the third home game of the season, but I had yet to make it into a game.

I remember reading the Collegiate Times the morning of the game, and the headline, "Hokies aim to beat Cocks". For some reason, that headline has always stuck with me. I wonder why.

I was living on the seventh floor of Lee Hall as a freshman that year. We started every Saturday morning by kicking field goals...in the dorm.

We used empty two-liter bottles and tried to kick them out of the window at the end of the hallway. If you missed, you had to chug (Milwaukee's Best, of course). If you made it, you could designate one of the other players to go down seven floors to retrieve the bottle so we could continue the game.

We did not make many so we were usually half in the bag by 10:00 a.m.

On the day of the South Carolina game, one of the other guys kicked the bottle so hard, it broke the window. Everyone scattered, the RA was pissed, game over.

We decided that we needed to actually make it into a football game so we made our way towards lot No. 1 as one of our friends' parents had a Golden Hokie parking pass.

They had a keg in the parking lot of every home game so it was too good to pass up. After way too many keg stands and nothing to eat, the details are a bit fuzzy.

I remember being convinced to sneak in some grain alcohol in a ziplock baggie shoved down the front of my jeans. In retrospect, this was a very bad idea. Ziplock baggies are not very secure and grain alcohol has a tendency to burn your skin (especially in areas inside your jeans).

As for the game, I don't remember much. We were pretty bad that year and the lure of partying was much greater than the lure of watching bad football. As the years passed, we did not have much more luck.

I was cursed to attend Virginia Tech during one of the worst stretches for football and no bowl games.

Each year I made it to more and more games and my love for VT football grew (even if the win totals did not).

After leaving Blacksburg in 1993, I have managed to make it back at least once a year for a game every year since. I have been a season ticket holder since 1999 and now make it back for at least three games a year (sometimes with kids in tow, sometimes with college buddies in tow to re-live our glory years).

My closet is filled with mostly orange and maroon and my basement walls are adorned with memorabilia from the last 50 years of VT football. That first game started it off, and I have never looked back.

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