Who's On The Mount Rushmore of Virginia Tech Coaches?

Virginia Tech has had coaches who built programs out of nothing, including one who simply won more than anybody else who's ever stood on a Hokie sideline. Here's who has their faces carved on Virginia Tech's coaching Mount Rushmore.

Frank Beamer, football

There isn't much debate here. Beamer took over his alma mater in 1987, stuck around through 2015, and finished 238-121-2 across 29 seasons. Three Big East titles. Four ACC championships. He got the Hokies to the 2000 Sugar Bowl for a shot at the national title, lost to Florida State, then spent the next decade and a half making sure nobody overlooked Blacksburg again. He went into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2018. He left a footprint so large that when driving by Lane Stadium, the street is named after him.

It didn't start that way, though. Beamer's first six seasons were rough, a 24-40-2 record while the program dug out from scholarship sanctions left behind by Bill Dooley. Athletic director Dave Braine could have pulled the plug after a 2-8-1 season in 1992. He didn't, and Tech never had another losing season under Beamer again. What followed got a name of its own: "Beamerball", representing the blocked punts and pick-sixes that turned special teams and defense into a Tech trademark.

Chuck Hartman, baseball

Hartman coached the Hokies from 1979 to 2006 and left with a 961-591-8 record, the most wins by any coach in any sport in Virginia Tech athletics history. He retired fourth all-time in Division I baseball wins, made the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2004 and had his number retired the same year he walked away.

The win total only tells part of it. His 1982 and 1985 teams both hit 50 wins, and in 1992 he became the ninth Division I coach ever to reach 1,000 career victories. The 1997 team beat 11-time national champion Southern Cal in an NCAA regional, Tech's first tournament win in 28 years.

Kenny Brooks, women's basketball

Brooks arrived in 2016 and spent eight seasons turning a program that had gone 15 years without an NCAA Tournament bid into one that played in a Final Four. He went 180-82 at Tech, delivered the program's first ACC Tournament title in 2023, its first regular season ACC crown in 2024, and coached a team to a school-record 31 wins on the way to that 2023 Final Four run.

Brooks spent 13 years at James Madison, going 337-122 there and taking the Dukes to their first NCAA Tournament win since 1991. Center Elizabeth Kitley became the program's first 2,000-point scorer under him and still sits first in Hokies history in field goals, blocks and double-doubles.

Toby Robie, wrestling

Robie got to Blacksburg in 2006 as associate head coach, joining a program that had gone nearly a century without a single national champion. It's produced two since: Mekhi Lewis in 2019, Caleb Henson in 2024. Robie's been head coach since 2017, and in that stretch the Hokies have settled into a regular spot among the country's top 10 to low teens, good enough for six ACC Coach of the Year awards.

The groundwork got laid long before he had the title, though. For 11 years, Robie served as Kevin Dresser's associate head coach, and the two of them built a program out of nothing. Five top 10 NCAA finishes. Three ACC dual meet titles. Three ACC tournament championships. Seventeen ACC champions and 14 All-Americans came through Blacksburg on their watch. Once Robie took over solo, Lewis became the program's first four-time NCAA All-American and just its second four-time ACC champion.

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