Roanoke's Thanksgiving Rivalry
by: Matthew Sams

            To the typical Virginian, the name Windy White may simply suggest another late-winter snow storm surging up the eastern seaboard.  However, in Virginia sports lore, this name is one to remember.  White was a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute in 1923, who also served as a star punter and halfback on the varsity football team.  Unfortunately, as VMI prepared to play VPI (now commonly known as Virginia Tech) on November 29, 1923, White was in a Roanoke hospital suffering from chills, fever, and a bruised foot.  

            The first half of the game at Roanoke’s Maher Field was a defensive struggle, and neither team managed to score.  Miraculously, White ran onto the field at the beginning of the second half, drawing raucous cheers from the VMI sideline.  Before the game’s end, White managed to score its only touchdown and kept VPI from scoring with his booming punts.  Afterwards White didn’t get to celebrate the victory, as he quickly returned to his hospital bed.  However, his brave performance symbolized only a few characteristics of the intense rivalry that had formed between the two Virginia universities.

            When it comes to football, most Virginians would say that the most celebrated rivalry in the Commonwealth has always been between Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.  However, from 1913 to 1971 the real football rivalry of Virginia was between Virginia Tech and VMI.  The institutions played what was called “the Military Classic of the South” annually in Roanoke, bringing thousands of visitors to the Star City every year.  Furthermore, the game was played on Thanksgiving Day, making it even more of a celebrated event.  As in most heated rivalries, the favored team didn’t always win, and the games usually went down to the last second.  Not only was the VPI-VMI match-up the most anticipated football event in Virginia, it also played an important role in creating camaraderie among the students of each university and the citizens of the entire Commonwealth as well.    

            In the early 20th century, VMI and VPI were much more alike than they are today.  When the annual rivalry games began in 1913, VPI was an exclusively military school just as VMI was and still is today.  Furthermore, in those days both institutions were comprised of a relatively small corps of all-male cadets, each averaging about 1,000 students.  When the Thanksgiving holiday came around, the two corps came in closer contact with each other than at any other time of the year.  Usually around 12:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, the corps met at the Patrick Henry Hotel in downtown Roanoke.  From there, they marched in figuration in a one and a half-mile parade to the “Splinter Bowl” of Maher Field (Victory Stadium beginning in 1942).  Moreover, after each game, the VPI senior class cadets would host a banquet for their VMI first class (senior) counterparts.  This event symbolized the sportsmanship and friendliness of the VMI-VPI rivalry.  It seems that both senior classes of cadets knew the importance of respecting their rivals, because they too had endured four years of intense military life.

            However, along with the good will of the VMI-VPI rivalry came the mischief and competitiveness as well.  According to Dr. Tom Davis, a 1964 graduate of VMI and current history professor at his alma mater, pranks were played by both sides. “It was never a bitter rivalry, but pranks were certainly played--stealing each other’s mascots and things of that nature,” says Davis.  One of Davis’ fondest memories of the rivalry is the “Hokie Guard” that took place throughout the week prior to the game.  During the “guard,” VMI cadets would constantly be on watch in case their VPI foes attempted to steal cannons, mascot uniforms, or any other Keydet property.  “It was all about that fever-pitch excitement leading up to the game on Saturday, as it was such a big event,” Davis says.

            Davis’ sentiments about the rivalry are shared by individuals from Virginia Tech as well.  Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech’s current coach, played football at VPI from 1966 through 1968.  In a 1992 Roanoke Times and World News article, Beamer reminisced about his days as a player against his rivals:  “I’ll always remember [the] VMI-VPI games. . . .Walking across that bridge [over the Roanoke River] and seeing those parking lots fill up—that was about as big as it got for a kid from Hillsville, Virginia.” 

            Over the years of the “Military Classic,” victories came and went for each institution, as they often due in rivalries.  This fact is shown through the series’ overall record of 49-25-5, in favor of Tech.  While consecutive wins were hard to come by between VMI and VPI, there was one constant winner within the rivalry—the city of Roanoke.  Because it was the annual host of the event, the economy soared during the Thanksgiving holiday every year.  Thousands of visitors would come to Roanoke from within the Commonwealth and the surrounding states to see the most anticipated sporting event of the year.  Dr. Davis compares the occasion to the current rivalry between the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.  “It was the biggest game around the state during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s,” Davis says.  “Much of the hoopla that surrounds the Tech-UVa game these days reminds me of the gala that was VMI-VPI back then.”

            Thanks to the increased tourism over the Thanksgiving holiday, a great number of downtown Roanoke shops and hotels would completely alter their normal ways of business.  For example, hotel lobbies would offer orchestras to entertain guests trying to escape the cold of the pre-game parade.  In 1968, Roanoke Times columnist Ben Beagle summed up the event:  “It was the kind of game which sold fur coats to women for the occasion.  And for Roanokers and other western Virginians, it was a curious but successful mixture of old home week, Mardi Gras and Christmas five weeks early.” 

            Unfortunately, the days of the VMI-VPI rivalry have long since passed.  In fact, the two schools have not competed against each other since a 1984 match-up in Norfolk, Virginia.  According to Dr. Davis, Virginia Tech’s growth in population caused the rivalry to cease.  “By the mid-1960s, Tech was no longer exclusively male or exclusively-military,” Davis says.  “The two schools went in different directions, as the number of civilian students at Tech far exceeded the number of cadets.” 

            “The Military Classic of the South.”  “Brother Rats vs. Blue-Gray Tech.”  “The South’s Army-Navy Game.”  All of these slogans represent a time when two of Virginia’s greatest institutions merged into one momentous event every Thanksgiving Day.  In times of both war and peace, the schools made a city and a state come alive with excitement.  And although there will be no VMI or Virginia Tech cadets marching through downtown Roanoke for the 2006 Thanksgiving holiday, there should always be a remembrance of the time when they did.