Rings, Ribbons and Moonlight

Before 1911, graduating classes at Tech marked the occasion with gold class pins. Then Fred Kell Prosser, Class of 1911, proposed rings.

His class did not decide in time. So, according to the university’s 150th-anniversary chronology, Prosser later had the rings made himself and mailed them out. That is a very practical way to start a tradition.

Virginia Tech dates the ring tradition to 1911-12, when four classes, 1911 through 1914, designed rings. The alumni association adds that the Class of 1914 chose a design committee in 1912, which is when the tradition really took hold.

Here is what makes Tech different. Most schools have one ring design and sell it for decades. At Tech, each sophomore class picks a Ring Committee, and that committee designs a brand-new collection for its class.

Every design still carries a few fixed pieces: the screaming eagle, the American flag, campus buildings, and an interlocking chain around the bezel. The chain stands for “the strength of many united as one.”

Since 1991, Special Collections says, each collection has been named for a Virginia Tech honoree.

There is a rule for wearing it, too. Students wear the ring with the university name facing themselves. At graduation, they turn it around so the name faces out to the world.

If you want to see one up close, the Class of 2011 gave the university a large cast-bronze centennial ring. It is on display in Squires Student Center.

The best part of the ring story is newer. In 2012, alumni from the Class of 1964 started the Hokie Gold Legacy Program.

It works like this. Old class rings are donated and melted down, and that gold goes into the rings for new classes. The Class of 2014 got the first rings made with Hokie Gold.

There is a nice echo in who started it. The Class of 1964 is also the class of Homer Hickam and Alton “Butch” Harper Jr., the cadets who made the pact to build Skipper, the Corps cannon. That class has a habit of leaving things behind for the people who come after.

So a ring a junior buys today can hold a little gold that once sat on an older Hokie’s hand. It is a literal thread between generations, and it is hard to think of a better one.

The Class of 1935 held the first Ring Dance on April 27, 1934. That night introduced the pieces that still define it: the ring figure, the sabre arch, and the ring presentation.

It has been canceled a few times. The chronology lists 1944 through 1946 for World War II, 2018 for snow, and 2020 and 2021 for COVID.

Ring Dance belongs to the juniors. It is the night the class ring stops being something you ordered and becomes something you trade. Special Collections describes the heart of it simply: each student wears a date’s ring on a ribbon in one of the class colors.

The alumni association fills in the details. Each couple gets a pair of ribbons in the class colors, and each person wears their date’s ring on a ribbon at the wrist. One ribbon is darker and one lighter. While the rings are exchanged, the Corps of Cadets stands in the shape of the class numerals.

The song sung at the exchange is “Moonlight and VPI,” by Fred Waring and Charles Gaynor.

It is not quite as old as the dance. The chronology says the Corps petitioned Waring for a song for the 1942 Ring Dance, and it debuted on his NBC radio show on March 5, 1942. Couples have exchanged rings to it ever since.

Ring Dance does not end quietly. The night closes with fireworks over the Drillfield, “Silver Taps,” and a firing of Skipper, the Corps cannon. Skipper fires at Ring Premiere, too. VT News says each charge is aluminum foil packed with 8 ounces of black powder, so nobody misses it.

Some traditions are less formal. Special Collections wrote in 2015 that more than 30 years earlier, a Corps company released a small pig onto the dance floor as a prank. The Swine Club keeps that one going.

And some have grown up. Cadet “dyking,” the practice of decking out a junior for Ring Dance, has turned into a mentoring tradition that pairs freshmen with juniors.

That is the shape of the whole thing. A ring your class designed, gold from an older Hokie’s ring, a ribbon on your date’s wrist, and a cannon going off over the Drillfield at the end of the night.