One of the many things that Virginia Tech is known for, thanks to ESPN, is
its tremendous fan support in football. Hokie fans have turned Lane Stadium into
one of the toughest places to play in the country, and Tech’s record at home,
especially on Thursday nights, speaks for itself. But it hasn’t always been
that way. Virginia Tech used to have to beg people to come to football and
basketball games, and fan support was one of the school’s biggest problems.

Let’s take a look at some of the attendance figures for Virginia Tech
football games during the early days of the Beamer era. Here are the numbers for
1989, Frank Beamer’s third year at Virginia Tech.

1989 Football Attendance
Team	Attendance
Akron	28,371
Clemson	47,152
Temple	32,157
Florida State	41,832
Tulane	26,353
Vanderbilt	23,752
Average	33,270

That’s quite a different number than what the Hokies are drawing today. In
fact, it’s about half. Some of the games listed above are particularly
disappointing.

The Hokies didn’t sell out a single game in 1989. Not even Clemson, who was
ranked #7 in the nation, or Florida State, who was #19 and had been a preseason
Top 5. The Florida State game came one week after the Hokies beat #9 WVU and
Major Harris in Morgantown, yet only 41,832 fans turned out for the game. The
Homecoming game against Temple drew just over 32,000, and only 23,752 fans
showed up for Senior Day against Vanderbilt, a game where the Hokies were 4-3-1
and had a shot at a bowl bid.

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