More than 100 alumni and friends gathered in December 2022 for a Virginia Tech basketball game in Blacksburg. It wasn’t all about sports. Most fans in the crowd were old friends and classmates of VT head men’s basketball coach and Emory & Henry alumnus Mike Young, ’86.
This tradition started years ago when Mike was at Wofford University. Mike’s friend Gary Jones, ’83, organized an event called “Waspers for Wofford”; when Mike took the head job at Tech, Gary focused on Hokies instead of Terriers. Gary even leads the crew in an altered version of a favorite old Virginia Tech chant: “Hokie Wasper Hokie Hy! EHC and VPI!”
Everyone gathered before the game for refreshments at Blacksburg’s Bull and Bones and then headed to Cassell Coliseum to watch VT beat Grambling State 74-48.
Tickets for the event sold out fast. Suzanne Crockett Hauschner, ’86, and BJ Humphreys Graham, ’86 (above), with their Mike Young “fans.” Mike took time after the game to speak to everyone who attended, including Greg Griffin, ’87 (below right). Alumni Jerry Reed, ’85, Mary Sue Harris Caplinger, ’83, and Curtis Burchett, ’85 (below middle), gathered at Bull and Bones.
On May 6, 2023, Emory & Henry celebrated its 175th commencement ceremony and the Class of 2023. Squire Miller Henry, a former porter and furnace stoker for the College, was among those celebrated, but with an honorary posthumous Doctorate of Divinity.
In March, the College hosted Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver (left) and co-founder of The Origin Project (TOP) and New York Times best-selling author Adriana Trigiani (right) in celebration of the 10th anniversary of TOP. The Origin Project is a program that helps second to 12th graders find their voices through writing about their family and regional roots. Trigiani brings in outstanding authors to talk with students participating in TOP each year. Teachers and high school students who participated in The Origin Project were invited to campus for the unique opportunity to spend time with Trigiani and Kingsolver. Kingsolver discussed her latest book, Demon Copperhead, a modern-day story set in Southwest Virginia. The event was a pre-event of the Virginia Festival of the Book.