My husband was part of the 1977 baseball team and I asked the school to help me get hats made with their old baseball logo in orange and black (which is what they wore - no maroon). The 1976 and 1977 baseball teams went to back-to-back to regionals and the 1977 team rode a 31 game win streak to get back to regionals. Both are in the top 5 winningest percentage teams of all time for VT baseball and my husband kept tabs on most of them his whole life. When he died, they all were asking me about each other, so i got 30 of them to campus for a reunion. Softball was also playing that weekend and we had to exit/enter the baseball field near the track because the stands were under construction for baseball. I gave all the former players replicas of their orange and black hats with the logo to wear in photos. The softball parents invited us to tailgate with them since we were walking through their parking lot to get to baseball and we exchanged stories before one of their games. After that baseball game, one of the softball players sought me out as I crossed their parking lot and asked me for a hat. I told her the story of how baseball had no maroon on the uniforms in an era when the incoming AD (Bill Dooley) took orange off all the uniforms. Other teams only wore maroon and white, but baseball wore only black, orange and white for decades. They also used the old logo on the hat and the state of Virginia with TECH on their warm ups. The color combination of orange, black and white was retired in the mid-late 80s and the old logo was only sold as a "heritage" logo on very limited merchandise with the colors changed to include maroon when I reached out to the university. No one would do the correct color combination for our hats without university permission (there were rules about how the "heritage" logo could be used and it included maroon when I was trying to get the hats made). Eventually, I got athletics to agree to make the hats and they mocked up the orange, black and white version for me to proof it before they ordered the hats for me. I could not resell them and I have not been able to get them to make me more, so even the 2017 version is pretty coveted for us late 70s and early 80s baseball fans. Any way, the other softball players on that 2017 team were very intrigued by the design, but I literally gave them my last hat off my head. I think it was 2019, but could have been 2018, the softball team debuted all black uniforms that had the former baseball logo I had approved and their colors were only orange and white. I would like to think that hat was impetus for them making those uniforms. I can tell you the former baseball players really appreciated seeing them play in those. Oh, we did just celebrate the 50th reunion of the 1976 baseball team during the GT series this year. Too much going on that weekend to plan to be at softball, but many players made their way over in the hats I had made for them. Happy to see the logo I had athletics recreate for that 2017 baseball reunion is still on the softball player sleeve for their black uniforms (even though they added some maroon to the current black uniforms). I REALLY want a black visor with the orange and white "heritage" logo that softball wears now, but no one sells those. Put some in the auction for softball and I know a bunch of baseball players (and wives like me) would bid on it! The proof they sent me is below and appears to be the very same that they have used on the last 2 black version of the softball uniforms. I can tell you that 4 of the top 5 winningest percentage baseball teams of all time wore that logo, so I'm hoping it continues to bring the softball team the same luck. Go Hokies (baseball and softball)!

Used to have to get custom hats to get them embroidered. Now Alumni Hall has a few. I still order them online and design my own. Get to pick the color/style of hat, color/font of stitching, etc.

tenure by refusing to license its use on VT apparel, signage, etc. Then the “wussy” VT appeared on non-athletic apparel. Apparently somewhere along the line the athletic department and university decided to allow the old VT to be used/licensed again, probably as a result of alumni and fan demand.

I wish we would get rid of it and use our athletic VT as the established logo.

I agree with you. Seems like sometimes we dump tradition for, “ change is good”