As the HokieBird mascot at Virginia Tech, Augusta County native Amy Wells had to keep her role as “the bird” a secret from other students.
To uphold the mascot’s mystique, when she was in the suit, she couldn’t talk; the bird had to speak through their hands and movement.
Until her graduation from Tech in 1999, outside of her inner circle, no one knew Wells was one of two HokieBird’s creating magic and memories for students, alums and the community.
When Wells attended her graduation ceremony at Lane Stadium, she sat in her folding chair like thousands of other students, but she stood out for one giant reason: she wore the feet of the HokieBird with her gown, a tradition passed on from those who wore the bird suit before her.
The pursuit to write a book
While Wells had to keep the HokieBird secret when she was at Tech, more than two decades later she’s sharing her experiences through a new book Pursuit: Learning Important Life Lessons as a Mascot for sale on Amazon in paperback, hard cover and Kindle versions.
Full disclosure, I grew up with Wells in Augusta County, and we both went to Fort Defiance High School. I was also at Virginia Tech from 1995 to 1999. I had heard through the grapevine that Amy was the HokieBird, and I naively reached out to her once as a journalism student, to write about her role. I didn’t know it was a secret, so even though the article wouldn’t have been published, she declined.
Coming full circle, here we are nearly 25 years later, and Wells can finally share the hot and sweaty and “awesome” details of being the bird – not just with me but with anyone who reads her book.
Writing Pursuit allowed Wells to go back in time to her days as the HokieBird.
“It was almost like I was reliving my time as the HokieBird. I was being able to be the bird again, you know, going back and talking about the tryouts, talking about different experiences I had.”
Over the years, when people learn about her days as a college mascot, there’s always a ton of questions, and Wells set out to answer them in her book. With each story she shared, she also expanded on how being the bird taught her a “life lesson learned,” as she refers to it in her book.
“I’m very clear that the social climate in our country right now is a little rough, so I think everybody can use some positivity and encouragement and whatnot,” she told AFP.
The Pursuit to be the HokieBird
Wells found a love for Virginia Tech and the HokieBird following in the footsteps of her older brother, Andy. Her first encounter with the mascot was when Wells was helping her brother move into his dorm. Wells was left with her brother’s belongings while the family worked to assemble his loft bed. At the entrance to the dorm, there was the bird who grabbed the suitcase she had in her hands and carried it up the stairs to her brother’s room.
At 14, Wells joked she “was way too cool for all of it, but inside, I was like, this is the coolest thing ever.”
Back to FDHS, Wells was a successful three-sport athlete, but she didn’t want to go to college to play basketball, volleyball or tennis.
She wanted to be the HokieBird.
Becoming the HokieBird
Fast forward to the spring of 1996, during Wells’ freshman year in college. While at Owens Dining Hall, she saw the audition flyer that would change her life.
Fourteen people auditioned for one open spot as the HokieBird; there were two back then that shared the duties of the bird, Wells said, though she’s certain there are more students serving as birds today.
After a grueling week of auditions, Wells was announced as the choice for the open spot.
Wells was not the first female to be the HokieBird, but she was the first to wear this version of the HokieBird suit. Being the bird was “physically demanding” for her five-foot, eight-inch frame, but she thinks being an athlete at the high-school level helped prepare her for the role.
The HokieBird is known for being gender neutral. Whenever there is a new HokieBird, there is a lot to learn. She worked with the cheer squad, learned the distinctive HokieBird walk, and before you knew it, she had become the HokieBird.
“There something magical about Virginia Tech football fans,” Wells said. “Getting in the suit and being on the field, it is very surreal.”
The suit was heavy and hot, and yes, even stinky. She would lose five pounds of water weight during a football game, and still, she said, it was all worth it.
“It was magic, and I know that sounds weird maybe to some people, but to be a character that instantly brings so much joy to people, it is genuinely the best feeling.
“If I ever got in that suit in a bad mood, it didn’t last long, because people just love to see you.”
Her mom, Donna, was supportive of her role as the HokieBird but wasn’t so sure about crowdsurfing during home football games.
For context, Wells was at Tech in its heyday when it came to a successful football program with Frank Beamer and Bud Foster leading the program that eventually landed them in the Sugar Bowl national championship game. Wells missed the championship run by one year, but there were certainly a lot of victories in Lane Stadium during her four years there.
It was tradition, Wells said, that when the Hokies were winning, the HokieBird put their life literally in the hands of the fans.
“You would go over to the student section, and the students would sort of lift you up and pass you up the stands, and my mom was always worried they were gonna throw you over the top, and I’m like, these are Hokie fans, of course they’re not going to do that,” Wells said. “The exhilaration of being passed up, and the student body coming together to make sure the HokieBird doesn’t get dropped … there’s so many cool experiences, but that was definitely a really fun one.”
‘Would people here know you are famous?’
Wearing the suit for four years wasn’t exactly glamourous, as Wells details in her book, and because of the anonymity associated with the mascot role, well you don’t get a lot of attention for what you do either.
Wells would go to class after a football or basketball game and unlike players or cheerleaders, she couldn’t tell everyone about what she really did over the weekend.
In “Pursuit,” Wells shares that her two daughters have traveled the two-plus hours with her back to the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. She’s a women’s basketball season ticket holder.
One of her daughters asked her: “would people here know you are famous?”
The short answer, no.
Wells was selected for an on-court game recently at a basketball game, and she was able to share with the crowd that she was a former HokieBird during her four years at Tech.
“I’m not somebody who needs a lot of praise, but it is fun when people find out that you had that role, because typically people are like, ‘no way, that’s so cool.’ There’s not that many people who have done it. It is kind of a tight-knit small group of people. It was the coolest.”
Wells had a dream to be the bird, and she had a dream to write a book about it, and now, she has accomplished both.
Wells finished the writing part of the book in 2022. Because much of what she was writing about is now copyrighted, she had to go through all the proper channels before she released her book. She obtained licensure to move forward with the book on Dec. 20.
On Christmas night, after all her hard work, her determination paid off. The book was officially for sale on Amazon.
“I actually saw it on my Kindle the other day, and I don’t know, it makes me very emotional. It is a decade long dream that has actually come to fruition.”
Purchase a copy of ‘Pursuit’
Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a mascot? Is it hot in there? Does it smell bad? How hard is it to see?
Amy Wells had the great joy of serving as Virginia Tech’s HokieBird from 1995-1999.
In Pursuit: Learning Important Life Lessons as a Mascot, she answers her most frequently asked questions and shares some of her memorable experiences and explains how it all translated into some incredible life lessons that she will never forget.
Hard cover, paperback or Kindle versions available.
Interview: Amy Wells shares her experience as the HokieBird
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Crystal Graham
