Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501180034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CLAUDINE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUCHANAN LENGTH: Medium
Since he was 10 years old, Meade Stull has heard how his great-grandfather gave Virginia Tech its nickname.
So, when it came time for Meade to apply for college, he did not have a tough decision to make. After all, not only had his great-grandfather written a cheer that gave the Hokies their nickname, Stull's grandfather also attended the school, as did several other relatives.
So, Meade applied to and was accepted by Virginia Tech - his first and only choice.
The James River High School senior, however, isn't just sitting around reliving the story of great-grandfather Oscar Meade Stull. Meade is in the marching band, the honor society, the Key Club and the Varsity Club. Yet, he finds time to work part time as a bag boy at IGA Grocery store.
"Every since he's been old enough to think about going to college, he had wanted to go to Tech," Billy Stull said of his son, Meade.
Meade, however, remembers the stories his grandmother told him of the Hokie cheer.
When Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College changed its name to Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the school sought a new cheer. Oscar Meade Stull was a senior in 1896 when he entered the contest, winning a plaque and $5 for writing the "Hokie" cheer.
Oscar Stull went on to earn his chemistry degree, and the Hokie name stuck.
Upon Oscar Meade Stull's death in 1964, the family donated a framed copy of the cheer to Virginia Tech's library, but no one seems to know where it is now.
Meade and Billy Stull wanted to see the copy recently, because it had hung in Oscar Stull's home, but no one at Tech could find it. It wasn't in the archives section of the university library, where it should have been.
It could have gotten misplaced, said Col. Harry Temple, an unofficial Tech historian.
"If it is not in the university archives, it is probably in someone's rumpus room in Wisconsin by now," Temple said.
But, the school does have copies of the cheer. And, every now and then, Meade's grandmother, Ruth Stull, finds a newspaper clipping mentioning her father-in-law's name. Her late husband, Charles William Stull, attended Tech for two years before transferring to Washington and Lee University.
Meade plans to study civil engineering at Tech.
"I really like designing, Meade said. "I just don't want to go too far away from home. I want to stay in the state and be close to my friends and to home."
by CNB