Shake It Up
I think it’s really cool how some people, they absolutely need to come get a milkshake. Something that we look at as a fundraising opportunity plays a bigger impact to some people. when they go to a basketball game, it’s the experience.
G.W. Sebright
student milkshake chair
BASKETBALL AND FOOTBALL AT Virginia Tech wouldn’t be the same without the popular Dairy Club delicacy—the milkshake.
“I have been buying them for years,” said Roger Weeks ’70, while sipping a chocolate milkshake at a men’s basketball game in January.
“This is all I’m eating tonight,” he said, chuckling.
The Dairy Club, a student organization of the Department of Dairy Science at Virginia Tech, has been selling milkshakes at football games since 2001 and at basketball games since 2002.
The club sells, on average, 3,200 shakes during football season and 6,000 combined for men’s and women’s basketball games.
Proceeds from the milkshake sales fund a variety of events throughout the year, from study abroad opportunities for club members to the Little All-American Dairy Show and Hokie Dairy Day. For Hokie Dairy Day, the club invites elementary and middle school students to campus to learn about dairy farming and milk production.
Milkshake connoisseurs will find the Dairy Club milkshake booth inside Cassell Coliseum for basketball games and at Lane Stadium during football season. For $6, fans may choose from chocolate or vanilla-flavored shakes. Strawberry shakes are available occasionally. At least four members of the Dairy Club work the milkshake booth for basketball games.
The students make the shakes using a mix from PET Dairy in Tennessee, a farmer-owned brand of Dairy Farmers of America, and flavored syrup.
“I think it’s really cool how some people, they absolutely need to come get a milkshake,” said G.W. Sebright, who is the club’s milkshake chair for basketball season. “Something that we look at as a fundraising opportunity plays a bigger impact to some people. When they go to a basketball game, it’s the experience.”
Hokie basketball games and milkshakes go hand-in-hand for John Shelor.
At a recent basketball game, he said he always seeks out the milkshake booth, walking the full circle around the coliseum until he finds it.
“It’s kind of a tradition,” Shelor said. He prefers the vanilla shakes.
His friend, Becca Stephens, described her Dairy Club chocolate shake as creamy and not too sugary.
“Amazing,” she said as she sipped the shake.
