🏟 Stadiums · football
Lane Stadium
Lane Stadium, home of the Hokies
Photo: Clenz, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Home of the Hokies. Enter Sandman tradition started around 2000. Frank Beamer played here (1966-68) and coached (1987-2015).
Fun facts
- •The crowd jumping to Enter Sandman has been measured by the Virginia Tech seismograph lab – it registers as a small earthquake.
- •Lane Stadium is the largest stadium in Virginia, holding over 65,000 fans.
Through the years
- 1965
Opened
- 1980
Additional stands added on the east side
- 1982
Lights installed
- 2002
West side expansion to 66,233 seats
- 2006
Addition of Merryman Center
Sports history
Frank Beamer played at Virginia Tech (1966-68), then returned as head coach and built a program that became a national powerhouse. His 29-year tenure produced a 238-121-2 record, 23 consecutive bowl appearances, a BCS National Championship Game appearance in 1999, and generations of Hokies who grew up believing Lane Stadium was the toughest place to play in America.
Michael Vick's debut -- the beginning of the most magical season in program history
Statement win that propelled VT to the BCS National Championship Game
BCS National Championship Game -- first appearance in program history
Signature win in one of college football's fiercest rivalries
VT's first ACC Championship Game, a defensive masterpiece
Metallica's "Enter Sandman" blasts through Lane Stadium as the team takes the field for night games. 66,000 fans jump in unison, registering on Virginia Tech's seismograph lab. One of the most iconic traditions in college football.
The cannon fired by the Corps of Cadets after every VT score. Named after a former mascot, Skipper has been a Lane Stadium fixture for decades.
Bud Foster's defensive players carried an actual lunch pail to every game and practice -- a symbol of blue-collar toughness that defined VT defense for 25 years.
Players touch the Hokie Stone at the entrance to Lane Stadium as they walk from the locker room to the field before every game.
Stories that happened here
- The $5 Yell That Named a NationA cadet needed five dollars, made up a word, and gave every Tech fan a name. The same year, the school ditched its prison stripes.
- Enter Sandman and the Lane Stadium JumpA new videoboard, a Napster playlist, a lightning storm and a band member hopping to stay warm.
- Who’s Inside the HokieBirdFrom a $200 suit with real turkey feathers to a muscle-bound bird that arrived by limo, and the students who kept the secret.
- The Campus Is an Argument Carried Out in RockA president thought his college looked like a shoe factory. A century later, the Board of Visitors wrote stone into policy. Every building shows who was winning the year it went up.
- Skipper, the Cannon Built to Answer VMIThree cadets, a pile of brass, a taunt from across the field and the day Kennedy was shot.
- From Gobblers to HokiesFor most of a century Tech’s teams were the Gobblers. A coach changed that over a story about table manners.
- The Highty-Tighties and Tech TriumphA six-piece drum corps that played for Sousa, won so many parades the parade quit keeping score, and gave Tech its fight song.
- Ut Prosim: That I May ServeA Latin motto from 1896, a spring Saturday when thousands of students say thank you, and four students who started their own ambulance service.
On the map
Close by
A short walk from Lane Stadium.
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