A Relic from Hokie Past

The year is 1990, Frank Beamer is in his 4th season as the head Hokie sitting at 5-5, and the wahoos were 8-2 and ranked #17 in the country lead by Coach George Welsh. The Hokies jumped out to a 24-0 lead led by the arm of QB Will Furrer and the legs of RB Vaughn Hebron.

Furrer ended with 254yds. through the air and Hebron ended the game with 142yds. on the ground.

After beating a ranked rival at home, the Hokies faithful stormed the field. As is customary with field storming, the goalpost fell victim to the unfortunate combination of bourbon and gravity, and the posts were taken down.

As we see often, these goalposts are usually deposited in fairly well known locations, the bottom of a lake in Lawrence, Kansas, or the bottom of the Tennessee River resting peacefully below the Volunteer Navy. In the case of the Lane Stadium posts from 1990, one of said goalpost ended up in a less peaceful resting place…

The basement of the Sigma Nu house in Downtown Blacksburg.

The brothers at the time, were able to gather most of the goalpost and carry it on their shoulders from Lane to the Sigma Nu house at the corner of Progress and Wilson streets behind the Hokie House. The next question is: What to do with the post?

It’s great that they got it to the house but now what? Thankfully, being an engineering school, the brothers had the great idea of using it as the footrail of the basement bar. They were able to bend it to the shape of the bar and mount it to the floor. The goalpost has remained there in all of its glory for the last 33 years. A Relic of Hokie History, a memento of a historic victory over a ranked team, and way to always remember that the Hokies have been and always will be the flagship program in the state of Virginia!