Collegiate Times

Arooj Mustafa was sitting at the bus stop in front of Burruss Hall one windy February afternoon. But before the senior mechanical engineering major's date with Blacksburg Transit, Mustafa saw a shadow fall over her. When she looked up, she said only: "Oh my God."

The ranks of Orange Mann and the Hokie Bird have a new, 10-foot interlocutor: Armored Hokie.

Built from melange of material from a baseball catcher's chest protector to plastic molds intended for sewage disposal (the thigh guards) to construction stilts, the idea Blacksburg's biggest bird was formed in a theme park "junkyard."

The brain-bird of junior Jesse Johnson, Armored Hokie can trace its inspiration to a dread-locked character at the Hard Rock theme park in Myrtle Beach, S.C. It was there that Johnson learned the tricks of the stilt-walking trade from the local master, Dustin Houck while working a summer job as Junkman.

After several near tumbles from his perch, Johnson mastered the stilt-walking trade and took to his job with gusto.

"I just loved the smiles on all the kids' faces. All the kids just loved it," Johnson said.

Returning to Tech last fall, Johnson enrolled in professor Steve Bickley's sculpture course and set to work crafting his own towering creation.

Both Junkman and Armored Hokie have had their fair share of run-ins with rowdy observers. During one of his initial walks in the costume before the University of Virginia football game, Johnson got the scare of his life.

"Two guys saw me standing by War Memorial and decided to charge me. They were pretty drunk and while I'm pretty sturdy (on the stilts), I was almost positive they were going to knock me down," Johnson said.

Adults in the Hard Rock theme park had a strange habit of challenging the Junkman. Standing stone still between two Junkman look-alike statutes, Johnson would often come to life when the park's visitors least expected it.

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