Blacksburg, Va. — Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Tech’s basketball arena, couldn’t hold the thousands and thousands of students, faculty members, and Blacksburg residents who came to hear President Bush speak this afternoon. So the overflow crowd marched next door to Lane Stadium, an imposing structure known for its deafening football crowds. But today the orange and maroon masses were nearly silent as they took their seats in the stands and fanned out onto the field.

As the spectators waited, the wind blew hats off heads and made the metal goalposts creak. When the image of Tech’s president, Charles W. Steger, finally appeared on the stadium scoreboard, the crowd applauded as if cheering a touchdown. A few moments later, the sight of President Bush drew people to their feet. But it was the final speaker, Nikki Giovanni, a poet and distinguished professor at Tech, who stirred the crowd with the refrain, “We are Virginia Tech. We will prevail.”

As her words came through a muffled public-address system, the stadium finally rang with Blacksburg’s most familiar chant: “Let’s go Ho-kies. Let’s go Ho-kies. Let’s go Ho-kies.”

Standing near the middle of the field in a crisp white Hokies marching-band uniform was Gerald Goad, a junior majoring in communications. Mr. Goad said he was a friend of Ryan Clark, a band member killed in yesterday’s shooting. “The way he said my name, it always brought a smile to my face,” Mr. Goad said of Mr. Clark. As the applause continued, Mr. Goad, who plays the cymbals, honored his friend by doing one of the things he says he does best: making a lot of noise. —Eric Hoover