Hokie Stitching

While coaches and players are worrying about their game plan for Friday, there's another small group looking-out for how Tech is going to look when the take the field.  The Hokies will be wearing their Maroon jerseys, which have survived the wear and tear of a long season, thanks to the expertise of three women in Blacksburg.

 

Before running out of the tunnel and making a name for themselves with a tackle or a touchdown, Tech players need the services of three ladies hard at work making sure the Hokies look good on the field.

 

"We get to know them all by watching the games and going to the games,” said Bonnie Sheppard, a tailor shop employee, “and then working on their jerseys."

 

"I sewed their name on or I zig-zagged around their letters," said fellow tailor, Linda Naughton,

 

The trio works on campus, inside the halls of the Military Building, at the Tailor Shop, spending most of their time fitting and fixing uniforms for the Corps of Cadets. But they also put in hours resizing and repairing the Hokies' jerseys.

 

"Sometimes they come in here with big holes in them,” Sheppard said, “maybe halfway ripped off. We just patch them and put them back together."

 

They're full-time in the shop. Linda Fisher has been here the longest, almost 17 years.

 

"I've sewed all my life,” Fisher said. I’ve sewed for people, made clothes, quilts."

 

Bonnie Sheppard is right behind her at 15 years. She's the biggest Tech fan of the bunch.

 

"You've got to stick with your team no matter what,” Sheppard said. “You can't let them down when they have a bad year."