Meet Mercer McPherson: The creator of Virginia Tech's 'Gobbler'

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0:54 Meet Mercer McPherson: The creator of Virginia Tech's 'Gobbler'

By:

Kate Adkins

10 Sep 2025 462

While a costumed Gobbler appeared at least one game in 1936, the first permanent costumed Gobbler did not appear until the fall of 1962. In the early 1960s, Mercer MacPherson, a civil engineering student, saw the mascot for another university and decided that VPI should have one as well. He contacted a manufacturer, learned what a mascot suit would cost, and raised the money, most of it from civilian students.

Meet the first-ever Hokie Bird, a.k.a. the Gobbler. Then known as the Gobbler, the first permanent costume mascot made its debut at Virginia Tech in 1962 thanks to this guy. Mercer McPherson, then a civil engineering student, decided that VPI needed a costume mascot. He contacted the manufacturer, learned what a mascot suit would cost, and raised the money, most of it from fellow students. Mercer took the $200 he raised all the way to Pittsburgh, where the costume would be manufactured. He called the finished product a thing of beauty. The costume arrived a few days before the last football game of the season, what was then the annual Thanksgiving Day face-off between VPI and VMI. Mercer wore the get-up to become the first of Virginia Tech's permanent, though evolving, mascots.