During my time at VT, a.k.a. VPI&SU, the football team was called the "Fighting Gobblers", with the name appearing in Lane Stadium, while all the other varsity teams were called the "Hokies". During the 1980's, the football changed its name to the latter.
From the student newspaper, the Collegiate Times:
Over the years, the names of both the university and its mascot have gone through various changes. Although the school’s official name is currently Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and is referred to as Virginia Tech, it was once referred to simply as VPI. The HokieBird was once known as the Gobbler, then the Fighting Gobbler.Come to think of it, I remember hearing about a pre-season NCAA basketball poll, possibly in Sports Illustrated, that mentioned Virginia Tech and VPI, not realizing that these were two names for the same school. In response to such name confusion, we had a tongue-in-cheek contest to rename the school. The winner was Eastern Institute of Enlightenment and Intellectual Outgrowth, abbreviated as EIEIO, as recalled in some letters to the editor of the Virginia Tech Magazine.
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