# Hokies vs. Wahoos **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 1, 2000, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564 "2000-02-01T02:39:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Salieri2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Salieri2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salieri2)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/1 "2000-02-01T02:39:00Z")
Oh, man. Unca Cecil has destroyed my long-held but erroneous notion about the castrated turkeys of local rival VA Tech. See [www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhokie.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhokie.html) for reference. Being a UVa grad I then have to question my own mascot, and say, what’s a Wahoo? We were always informed by upperclassmen in the know that a wahoo was a fish that drinks twice its own weight. Can anyone back this up for me? I’m devastated here. Devastated. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/2 "2000-02-01T06:08:00Z")
Unca Cecil didn’t write the Hokie column. And I’ll get right on that Wahoo thing. Jill ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/3 "2000-02-01T19:51:00Z")
> [@](#): > > what’s a Wahoo? You mean you don’t know your own ass from a … oh, sorry, wait, thought that said Wazoo… ;0 ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/4 "2000-02-01T22:51:00Z")
[Merriam-Webster’s online](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?wahoo) lists several definitions for “wahoo”. They appear to include the: No. American spindle tree (Euonymus atropurpureus) elm (Ulmus alata) mackerel (Acanthocybium solandri) Who knows what curious random phrase or Indian vocabulary spawned it, but the dictionary claims the fish is much more recent a definition. The elm is 18th century, the spindle tree 19th century, and the fish, 20th. ---
**Author:** ![anotherlawyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@anotherlawyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anotherlawyer)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/5 "2000-02-02T14:11:00Z")
An alumnus of VA Tech told me about the castrated turkey theory. He said that’s why the crowd at a Tech football game yells “Gobble! Gobble!” after a touchdown. ---
**Author:** ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falcon)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/6 "2000-02-02T16:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Salieri2: > **Being a UVa grad I then have to question my own mascot, and say, what’s a Wahoo? We were always informed by upperclassmen in the know that a wahoo was a fish that drinks twice its own weight. Can anyone back this up for me?** Don’t know for sure…but I always heard the same thing, Salieri. And I know I read it somewhere (yeah, I know, that’s what they all say) while I was at W&M. Let me look it up… ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/7 "2000-02-03T06:39:00Z")
I’m a Va. Tech man myself, but what the hell, I’ll help y’all out. From UVA’s website: > [@](#): > > What are U.Va.'s colors and mascot (and what is a Wahoo)? > > Orange and blue were adopted as the University of Virginia’s official athletic colors in 1888. The University’s mascot is a Cavalier. Although the Cavalier is the official mascot of the University, the Cavaliers are also often referred to as the Wahoos, a term derived from a line in The Good Old Song, U.Va.'s “alma mater.” The lyrics: Words by Edward A. Craighill, '95 That good old song of Wah-hoo-wah, We’ll sing it o’er and o’er, It cheers our hearts and warms the blood To hear them shout and roar. We come from Old Virgin-i-a, Where all is bright and gay, Let’s all join hands and give a yell For the dear old U-V-A. What though the tide of years may roll And drift us far apart, For Alma Mater still there’ll be A place in ev’ry heart. In college days we’ll sing her praise, And so, when far away, In memory we still shall be At the dear old U-V-A. from Wilson, A. Frederick, comp. Songs of the University of Virginia. New York: Hinds, Noble & Eldredge, 1906. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2000, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/8 "2000-02-03T01:44:00Z")
Thanks, Cabbage. Now I can spend my time on more important things. Jill “important” being a subjective term ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/9 "2000-02-05T15:58:00Z")
A wahoo is also the common name for the fish scientifically known as Acanthocybium solandri. The world record catch of Wahoo was a 158 lb 8 oz fish caught in Loreto, Baja California, Mexico on 10-Jun-96 by Keith Winter. See [http://www.igfa.org](http://www.igfa.org) . ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2000, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/10 "2000-02-07T16:06:00Z")
Yeah. Mackerel. Webster’s 3rd definition. Seems to have been coined fairly recently, however. ---
**Author:** ![milhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@milhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2000, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hokies-vs-wahoos/1564/11 "2000-02-19T05:45:00Z")
Hello, this is my first post, so I just want to say I’m a senior at Virginia Tech. It has been established that the word Hokie has no meaning. But to me, the most interesting thing is that no official meaning for the word has ever been adopted. I mean every word was made up at some point, but a meaning was eventually associated with each word. The irony is, the closest word to Hokie that has a meaning is hokey. But one definition of hokey is “noticeably contrived: artificial.” That’s exactly what “hokie” is; a completely fake word. So maybe when the student made up the word hokie, his intention was for it to never have a meaning; or even to define the word as “a word that has no meaning.”