Road Trip

We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all campuses are not created equal. Some are rowdy, some are modern and others are knock-your-socks-off beautiful. The University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, is all three. The architecture and atmosphere of the school are so striking that Cavaliers call their campus by a different name: the Grounds.

That's not the only colloquialism you'll encounter in the Virginia vernacular. Because Mr. Jefferson believed you could never be a "senior" in knowledge, freshmen are "first-years," and so forth. The school's mascot is a Cavalier, but the Virginia faithful are also called Wahoos -- or just Hoos -- allegedly in honor of the fish that can drink twice its body weight. (Some, however, believe Wahoo came from the Wahoowa chant at the end of the school's fight song.)

Call them what you will, Virginia fans are a dedicated bunch. At football games they're the picture of Southern hospitality: Students dress up and sway in time as the band plays The Good Old Song -- the school's unofficial alma mater -- after each Virginia score. It's tradition, like the Jeffersonian columns at the north end of Scott Stadium.

Basketball season brings newer, more modern traditions. A tent city known as Hooville springs up outside University Hall, sometimes two weeks before a big game. Its inhabitants are students ("Crazies"), camping out for first-come, first-served seats.

In the shadow of University Hall is the University Hall Turf Field, where the ACC field hockey tournament will be held this week. The Hoos have become NCAA tournament mainstays, but winning their conference won't be easy: The top four teams in the country are ACC schools. Nearby is Klöckner Stadium, which fans pack in the spring to watch the national champion men's lacrosse team. The men's and women's soccer teams also play in Klöckner, a facility so highly regarded that the U.S. women's national soccer team practiced there before the 2003 World Cup. They came for the field, but also for Charlottesville, a city rich in culture that still manages to feel more like a town -- a town that is distinctly Thomas Jefferson's.

The historic Jefferson estate, Monticello, overlooks Charlottesville and the university he founded 10 years after leaving the White House. He designed what he called an "academical village," a terraced lawn enclosed by student rooms, classrooms and faculty housing, with the Rotunda, a half-scale re-creation of the Pantheon, at its center. Today the university covers more than 1,000 acres, but the Lawn, Jefferson's original campus, remains its heart. It is also home to a notable undergraduate tradition: streaking the Lawn.

This weekend, field hockey and fall colors will bring visitors to Charlottesville in droves. Who knows, perhaps the spirit of Mr. Jefferson will be there as well: tailgating in an orange-and-blue tie, sipping Virginia wine and chanting, "Wahoowa!"

Issue date: November 11, 2003