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Hard to believe it's been four years since HokieCentral first debuted. And now ... now it's hard to believe that it ever didn't exist! We've discussed highs and lows; celebrated births and mourned deaths; cheered for wins and dissected losses. HokieCentral has become more than just a place to get information on the Hokies; it's become a place to simply BE a Hokie. Join me now as we go back through the last four years of HokieCentral, then. We'll start off with a quick refresher course, "Do You Remember?" In that I'll list a series of events from HokieCentral that I found particularly memorable. Some of them are things I think helped give the site identity; others are things I found humorous. Others still are memorable to me simply because I was involved in them. Your memories may be different than mine, so feel free to form a thread on the message board of "Do You Remember?" to add on to what I've listed. From there we'll go to "Four Years In Quotes," culled from four years of HokieCentral archives — year by year. I've scanned through all the archives and pulled out quotes or explanations that I found interesting or intriguing. We've got a number of examples of Will's power of prediction ... and just about an equal number of predictions where, like Homer Simpson, Will must be saying "D'oh!" as he rereads them. There are jokes, sly remarks, rival insults, insightful comments, and a few things that even these years later fill you with Hokie Pride. I've tried to give a short lead-in to each quote to help place it in context. Some, of course, need no such introduction. My comments, wherever they appear, are in bold or brackets. Otherwise, the words you read are direct quotes from HokieCentral. Lastly I give you a few odds and ends, with "Turkey Bites" (remember those??) on a few smaller subjects, and finally a short quiz to see how much you REALLY know about this place you spend so many hours. So sit back, grab your mouse, and start the journey backbackbackbackback ... to 1996 and the start of HokieCentral. Enjoy. DO YOU REMEMBER?
HOKIE CENTRAL: FOUR YEARS IN QUOTES 1996On the 1996 NCAA tourney team; How True It Is Part I: As Hokie fans, I think we are only truly happy not when our teams achieve, but when they overachieve. It's true, don't you think? Think back on all of the great moments in Tech sports — the '73 NIT title, the '86 Peach Bowl, the '93 Independence Bowl, the '95 NIT title, and the '95 Sugar Bowl. Every one of those teams wasn't expected to do that well, not even by Hokie fans, so when they did do well, our joy was intensified by the disbelief that it was wrapped in On the 1996 football recruiting rankings: And as for West Virginia, well, ask not for whom the bell tolls, Mountaineers ... it tolls for thee (that's fancy talk for "You gonna get it now, Clem!" for all you WVU fans). Will's first "Oops": Get Alvaro Tor some significant playing time. On the future ticket-buying atmosphere; Will's First Prediction: So check back in ten years, and all of sudden, those $5 tickets you can buy outside the stadium won't be there anymore. And you'll be left standing outside the fence, picking your butt and standing on your tippy-toes to try to see the game. UNLESS YOU LINE UP NOW and start buying season tickets. On our troubles with the law: I can't help but think that the answer to that eternal question "What's a Hokie?" is becoming "It's a jailbird!" in lots of people's minds. Wonder why he does this?: See, here's the way you have to think of it, fellas ... you know those obsessive-compulsive people who wash their hands all of the time? Maybe dozens of times a day? Do you think they have "free time?" Of course not, they do what they do because they're obsessed. SOME VOICE MAKES THEM DO IT. Well, that's me and the Hokies. I'll bet that if you put a beeper on my hip and set it off at random, that 50% of the time it went off, I'd be thinking about the Hokies. On his bachelor days: Believe it or not, folks, I don't have an opinion this week (I'm practicing for my marriage already)! On VT vs. UVA (ugh) fans; How True It Is Part II: How many Hokies have you met who truly love Virginia Tech, and how many Wahoos have you met who don't necessarily love UVa, but love the fact that they went there? Happy yet Will?: I think that 16,000 [season tickets] is probably a more realistic estimate for the final number, but whatever, it's good to see things picking up. I'll start to be really happy, though, when the number gets up over 20,000 consistently. Whatever happened to this guy?: The Hokies inked Corey Moore, a defensive end from Holmes Junior College in Mississippi. Moore originally signed with Mississippi out of high school, but Ole Miss immediately went through a coaching change, and Moore went to a JC instead. He resisted overtures from Arizona State, and more impressively, Tennessee (yeah, that Tennessee) to sign with Tech. At 6-0, 215 pounds, Moore is small, and I wonder if the Hokies will play him at end, or switch him to linebacker. The really good news about Moore is that he had a 3.9 GPA in high school and a 4.0 at Holmes, and he'll have three years of eligibility at Tech. He will report to practice on August 10th, so he'll help out this year. Was it ever REALLY this small??: I love doing this stuff (I'm getting 30-50 hits a day, which really feeds my ego), so I'll do the best I can. Will nails It: You're going to like Shayne Graham, folks. I promise. Was it even THIS small?: I'm amazed at the way Hokie Central has taken off with very little promotion on my part, and frankly, I'm flabbergasted that nearly 100 people a day would give a rat's tail what yours truly has to say about anything. Can I have that back?: After the debacle of Frankie Allen's tenure, my main concern is not going backwards, and with Hussey, I think we're in safe hands. On the media's love affair with Miami: Have you seen the ESPN commercial promoting this Thursday's game between Miami and Rutgers? The voice-over says Miami has been "the big dog in the Big East conference since it began." Excuse me? Since when does winning 1 out of 3 conference championships qualify you as the "big dog"? That's beagle status, at best! Funniest line EVER: Also, I'm not going to make any jokes about how [Marcus] Parker, a guy who stole condoms, was suspended from a game being played in the Rubber Bowl. Just thought this was funny too: I gotta admit, I'm not sure what happened in Pitt versus Houston. I think Pitt lost. Bummer. I mean, if you're Pitt. If you're Houston ... I'll shut up now. Will gets negative after the SU loss; another "Oops": We'll probably end up somewhere between 2nd and 4th in the Big East, and we'll go to a bowl, hopefully the Car Quest or Gator Bowl. Before leaving us for his wedding: Boy, I feel sorry for my fiancee/future wife, but at least she knows what she's getting into. On Doug Doughty; Will's sarcasm was there from the start: Tiki is from Roanoke, and Doughty says in the article that he has interviewed him about 50 times, since he was in high school. Well, pity poor Doug. Instead of having material spoon-fed to him by Tiki Barber, his favorite player, he's going to have to actually make something up himself. Hey, drop me an email, Doug. I write my own stuff all the time here at Hokie Central. I can give you a few tips. Can we get Will into the design program?: Dave Braine promised on the Hokie Hotline Monday night that against ECU this weekend, the end zones are going to sport a new paint job that "you won't believe." I'll go on record as saying that I'll believe anything short of a paint job that shows a turkey holding up the headless body of a pirate On the Hokie Bird-Ibis brawl: Actually, I'm almost hysterical with laughter. The sight of that grinning turkey punching out that stupid looking ibis is something that I'm sorry I missed. How cool is he?: There's no way you're going to rattle Jim "Big Game" Druckenmiller, who is so cool that he's listed with the EPA as an environmentally safe replacement for CFC's. After the 1996 UVA game: Lastly, the latest news is that as of Friday night, 1/3 of the Lane Stadium goal posts are in front of Burruss, 1/6 is in the Duckpond, and another sixth were sitting behind Arnold's. On job security: Beamer is one of 10 candidates for the Alabama job, but he'd be insane to leave the safety and security of Virginia Tech for the pressure-cooker of the SEC. At least when Tech loses to UVa, they don't even hang the coach in effigy. When Alabama loses to Auburn, they actually want to hang the coach. Will gets bitter after the Orange Bowl loss: Greg [Cote of the Miami Herald] also wrote, "There is not much worse than a lopsided, meaningless bowl game ... unless it's a lopsided, meaningless bowl game in the wrong stadium." I would like to add "Or unless it's a frustrated, no-talent sports 'writer' who's so bitter about his hometown team having to settle for the third place Big East bowl that he can't show the class to say something nice about what was actually a pretty decent game." Be careful what you wish for: And there's always the chance that we'll get to, say, smash the smug looks off the faces of the Tarheels some year. 1997Can you imagine what it was like??: I've always thought one of the weaknesses of Hokie Central is that the site didn't have a message board or chat room. Well, now it does! ... sort of. Exhale now, Will: Maybe one of these days, the Hokies will be able to play in one of the "Classics," but I'm not holding my breath. D'oh!: Now we cross our fingers until signing day and hope that Isabelle doesn't waver. So we lost the Orange Bowl ... at least we were polite: The manager of the Eden Rock (Roc?) hotel that the Hokies stayed in for the Orange Bowl glowed with praise over how well-mannered and trouble-free the Hokie football team was. He made a statement to the effect that in 25 years of managing these types of events, the demeanor of the team was Top-5 material. Excuse me while I go check and see if that made The USA Today ... nope, it's not there. Imagine that! Oh-fer-one so far: Look for Temple to be out of the Big East Football Conference within two years, and for UConn to be in by the year 2002, and probably sooner. Didn't really catch on: My early suggestion for a nickname for [Rolan] Roberts: "The Sheriff." Well, maybe later: Druck, However, Will be a Big-Time NFL Quarterback On his dealings with the Athletic Dept.; if he only knew what was yet to come: Between the two of us, one of us is feeling picked on, and I'm betting it ain't you. Well, he got the Cardinals right: I think the best place to get drafted is probably in the late first round, because you're going to a good team, instead of getting the kiss of death by being shipped off to a perennial loser like the Jets, Bucs, Falcons, Cardinals, Rams, et al. Lee Corso explained: I'm practicing to be just like Lee Corso some day, and they tell me that if I sit on my brain and talk without thinking, I'm already 90% of the way there. Three years later and he's STILL right: And it seems we'll never be done with the Tony Morrison / James Crawford / Christy Brzonkala affair, at least not as long as N.O.W. is bankrolling Brzonkala's publicity-hound lawyer, Eileen Wagner. Another understatement: On defense, it's great to see Jamel Smith and Corey Moore doing well. Those are going to be two guys to watch this year. You are correct sir!: [Andre] Davis is a newcomer to football ... so he could be another of the famous Hokie diamonds in the rough. D'oh! again: Once Ms. Sharon McCloskey is named our athletic director, which will be soon ... Kiss of death; After a 3-0 start, Will opines: And the scary thing for Tech's opponents is that they can only get better. You'll never hear him say this anymore: You Really Ought to Check Out the Official VT Sports Web Site Searching for negatives after a 50-0 shellacking of Ark. State: Opie will one day be the career scoring leader here at Virginia Tech, but I'm sure he'll wake up in cold sweats for the rest of his life, remembering the extra point that he missed against Arkansas State in his sophomore year ... and how it changed his life. The "What Might Have Been" Department: 1999 home schedule as of fall 1997 was BC, Miami, Syracuse, UAB, Cincinnati and Arkansas State Perhaps he read this and got upset?: Our best hope here is that we'll avoid mistakes and get a(nother) subpar game from whipping boy Aaron Brooks. D'oh! (Gator Bowl version): If this team (UNC) was ever not focused and ripe for an upset, this is it. 1998Understatement galore: Vick could be the quarterback of Tech's future ... If he only knew how right he was: I know I haven't even mentioned the women's team here at HokieCentral, but I've had one eye on them all season long. Congratulations to the Hokies, Coach Bonnie Henrickson, and Tere Williams for a great year. For this team, the future is bright, indeed. Ouch!: In the games that I saw, I watched women playing the game more crisply and cleanly than I've seen men play it all year (of course, I've been watching a men's team that went 10-17...). You could say that: I imagine that the crowds next year will be larger than the 500-1000 fans that usually show up for women's hoops. Hey Will, what do you think of UVA fans?: I don't like Wahoos, folks. I never have, and I never will. If that sounds a little bit like Captain Kirk talking about the Klingons, then you get the idea. Second anniversary recollection of the start of HokieCentral: I grabbed a text-based HTML editor, read up on HTML, came up with a few cheesy graphics, stole some Tech graphics off the Virginia Tech web site, and went to work. And we thought he was just being polite: Curry says about Vick, "(Vick) is a good quarterback — he's as good as me or better." Out of conference D'oh!: One day fairly soon, Notre Dame will be in the Big Ten. Mark my words. You don't say!: Syracuse lost another big home opener. Imagine that. Unfortunately, like a bookend with his last game: In particular, after dominating spring and fall practices, Corey Moore was eerily quiet on Saturday [versus ECU in his first game as a Hokie]. We don't really mind he was wrong about this!: Next Up: Clemson. Call this one a dead heat. Just funny: Wow, whattaya know ... I was right. Somebody check Charlottesville — I think it just froze over. After four in a row over Miami: Tech players celebrated. Hokie fans cheered. And somewhere, off in the distance, a trained geese honked forlornly. How right he was: How many other teams have special teams and a defense that can carry the team to victory? And more importantly, how much longer can we keep doing this? [Umm ... not longer, Will. Next up: Temple] The Biggest D'Oh of Them All: You Can Hoot All You Want ... Temple's Going Down On his response to hearing the Temple score while at a PSU game: I can tell you what disaster sounds like. It makes the same sound as 96,000 Penn State fans gasping audibly, with a handful of them clapping. And it's followed a split second later by the plopping sound of the HokieCentral webmaster's head falling into his hands. That's what disaster sounds like. Boom indeed: But [WVU's Marc] Bulger better get the ball off quickly, or he'll get a chance to meet John "Silent but Violent" Engelberger, and Corey "Mister" Moore face-to-face. No dink, dink, dink there, just boom. What does he say, again?: As Frank Beamer says, "Get your tailgate supplies at Kroger." No, wait. Wrong quote. As Frank Beamer says, "It comes down to players making plays." It wasn't always good media: I'm thinking of changing the name of this web site to www.bashthemedia.com, because here we go again. On a rumored-but-failed SI article: How about that — when Northwestern is good, they steal coverage from us (1995), and when they stink, they steal coverage from us (1998)! On two articles detailing SU and WVU's concerns: Boo-hoo. Learn how to win a big game. Nailed this one too: I've got a prediction that I want you to mark down: Miami will light up UCLA like a Christmas tree in their December 5th season-ending game in the Orange Bowl This could be the preview for ANY game: I also look for Corey Moore to get brutally held, and it won't be called, not once. Way with words: If Beamer leaves, you'll be able to scrape me up off the floor with a spatula, because I'll be so shocked that I'll collapse into a puddle on the floor. Are you sure about that: There's only one way to eat an elephant — one bite at a time. Just thought this was interesting: In any event, it's morbidly appropriate that Al is ending his career in the same fashion that he spent most of it: injured, and operating at less than 100%. It's not something I like, mind you, but it fits. On the Music City Bowl: One of my favorite sayings is a simple slice of truth: Winning sure beats losing. 1999On the first days of Baby HokieCentral: He's a cute little kid, even if he does sometimes cry as if he has just had a dream about last fall's Temple game. On the women beating Xavier before a sellout crowd: The Cassell crowd was thrown into delirium, including this webmaster, who jumped around like a little girl attending a public appearance by Leonardo DiCaprio. So how do you REALLY feel?: Tennessee killed the possible BMS game. All together now, tuck your hands under your arm pits, flap your elbows, and make this noise: CLUCK-CLUCK-CLUCK-CLUCK-CLUCK!!! "If loving you is wrong I don't want to be right" award: If Speed Kills, the Hokies Ought to be Outlawed Was that good enough?: My thought on Midget, as N2VTFTBL said on the message board, is that he needs to step up this season like Loren Johnson and Keion Carpenter stepped up last year. On the 49ers and Druck: If you've got used car, do you drive it down to the junk yard and drop it off, badmouthing it the whole time, or do you talk it up and try to sell it to someone else? Guess it wasn't so ridiculous: The most ridiculous preseason ranking I've seen for the Hokies so far? The hands-down winner is CBS Sportsline, which ranked our Hokies 3rd in the country in their preseason football poll. Hit the nail on the head: If I was Jim Weaver or Paul Torgersen, one of my points of contention with the Big East proposal to Tech would be reduced exit fees if the Big East Conference starts to crumble around the Hokies. It worked! And no one but those silly Wahoos caught it!: Congratulations to Kenneth [Massey on being part of the BCS], whose work reflects well on Virginia Tech, and hey, Kenneth, be sure to leave hat special piece of code in there for Virginia Tech, okay? You know the one I'm talking about. On delaying BE entry: Hey, folks, we've been kicked around for about 30 years now. We've been ignored, laughed at, sneered at, and even stabbed in the back. Forgive us if we don't lick the Big East's hand at the first opportunity. On Tech's preseason ranking: The last time the AP writers voted Tech higher than the coaches did, Bob Dole was in diapers, and I'm talking Pampers, not Depends. Did they ever do this??: So Andre Davis's mission is clear: get away from the defenders, and use his speed to break open. Tech has a quarterback with a powerful arm that can toss up a ball that Davis can run under. After the JMU game; so do you still feel that way, Will?: I was thoroughly impressed with the way Vick threw, and it will be interesting to see if I still feel that way after watching Vick throw some more deep passes later in the season. Thankfully he was wrong: Although they'll [JMU] be hard pressed to improve on last year's 3-8 record in the tough Atlantic 10 conference, I think they're a pretty good 1-AA team. On SU's loss to Michigan: This marks the 78th year in a row that Syracuse has lost a big home game early in the year ... After Clemson, of course: All right, before we get into this game report, I want all of you to get out of your chairs, kneel down on the floor, and bow in the direction of Blacksburg. Because Corey Moore is THE MAN. Wasn't this a line from Blues Brothers? Can you guess the game?: 71 seconds left, 85 yards to go, and no timeouts. Insert ANY Cane QB for Kelly when they play us: Kelly can be counted on to play poorly under pressure ... 1999 by the numbers: 13 weeks. 11 games. 57 touchdowns. 7 ESPN appearances. 2 ESPN GameDay shows. 8 Michael Vick ankle grabs. 12 Andre Davis touchdowns. 1,119 Shyrone Stith rushing yards. 17 Corey Moore sacks. 2 shutouts. 7 Big East victories. 12 Michael Vick touchdown passes. 455 points. 6 Lane Stadium sellouts. 1 game-winning field-goal. And 2 torn-down goal posts. On the Sugar Bowl hype: Pity poor Bill Camp, who goes by "HokiefromWV" and puts together the VT Hokie News web links for HokieCentral. By the end of this month, he'll be a worn-out shell of a man, exhausted from trying to chase down all the Sugar Bowl stories. Just barely got this one right: If Dunlop stays steady and Mims and Roberts continue to play well, 15-18 wins is achievable, maybe more. On our unexpected ratings success: Perhaps TechLocker.com should design and market T-shirts that commemorate the Hokies' TV ratings instead of their undefeated season, because I'm telling you, I figured Tech might go undefeated sooner or later, but I never thought they would be embraced by the national media. No explanation needed: There is no turning back now. In the small space of just four months, the face of Hokie football has changed forever. Most of the time, we'll think it's for the better, and sometimes we'll think it's for the worse, but we will always look back on this season with pride. 2000On the difference of four years in VT-UMass games: That game featured John Calipari versus Bill Foster and Marcus Camby versus Ace Custis. This weekend, it will just be a meeting between two .500 ball clubs, coached by Bruiser Flint and Ricky Stokes, and led by Monty Mack and Dennis Mims. On BE basketball alignment: It will be great to have the Huskies visiting Cassell Coliseum every year, although it would give ESPN's Charlie Steiner, who frequently calls the Hokies "the Huskies," a bad case of lockjaw to try to call this game. Enough to make your stomach drop: Question: what if [Miami's Kenny] Kelly had picked Tech? Even now he's calling them right: Now that the question of postseason play has more or less been settled, and the answer is no, perhaps Stokes can take decisive action against Mims if he acts up again. TURKEY BITES In this litigious society, HokieCentral has always had disclaimers. Here now, you see the history of disclaimers: This page is in no way affiliated with or supported by Virginia Tech or the Virginia Tech athletic department This page is in no way affiliated with or supported by Virginia Tech or the Virginia Tech Athletic Department. Really! This page is in no way affiliated with or supported by Virginia Tech or the Virginia Tech Athletic Department (they don't want to have anything to do with a radical extremist like me!). This web site (HokieCentral) and its message board are very well known in the Virginia Tech community and are very widely read. This message board is visited by players, coaches, VT athletic department officials, members of the media, and their families, so please POST RESPONSIBLY! HokieCentral.com, its parent corporation Maroon Pride, LLC, and its General Manager and webmaster, Will Stewart, assume no responsibility or liability for the content of the posts present on this board, other than those posted by the web site employees under the aliases "Will (HC)," and "N2VTFTBL (HC)," and only then if those posts can be proven through IP address decoding or other methods to have been posted by Will Stewart or James Arthur. Posters on this board other than Will (HC) and N2VTFTBL(HC) accept full responsibility for the content of their posts. Like all authors, when you read large amounts of their work you pick up on common words and phrases. These are some of the things that stuck out most to me: Will's two favorite words: Flabbergasted and onus Seven out of eleven games during the 1996 season: WHY DON'T THEY PASS MORE TO BRYAN JENNINGS!? Much repeated from Wayne's World: Well, the world's a twisted place. When talking about losses, Will seems to have the same idea: I'm not gonna dress this pig up in silk. Oh, and big plays or hits bring some variation of the following: Excuse me while I go change my underwear. Phrases used a larger number of times: All together now; UVA (ugh); Trained-Geese; and Not so fast my friend! Even though, as alluded to earlier, the message board didn't even EXIST in the beginning, it's become a big part of HokieCentral. Here's a list of some of the biggest firestorms on the message board to date:
So, have you enjoyed your little jaunt down HokieCentral Memory Lane? The fun, the not-so-fun? The good, the bad and the ugly? Hopefully you enjoyed this little article, and have taken away some sense of history here; of just what HokieCentral has been around for, and just what has changed as HokieCentral has changed. And now, as promised, here's a little quiz, with answers below, to see just how much you REALLY know about your favorite Web site and mine, the inimitable HokieCentral. Happy anniversary, Will, James, and everyone else involved there at the former Midnight Logic. Looking forward to many more years. Now on with the quiz! HOKIECENTRAL QUIZ
Answers:
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