“Today we are all Hokies”: The Origin of the Quote?

On MySpace I noted one of my friends sporting a new icon:

“Today we are all Hokies”

I know where that quote comes from, or at least I think I do. There may be something that happened BEFORE the 1980s, but I doubt it. Feel free to chime in and correct me.

Are you old enough to remember when President Reagan got shot? (Raise your hand if you do. Thank you.) The rest of you babies pay attention.

President Reagan was shot as he lifted his arm to wave to a crowd. The bullet skimmed over the bullet proof vest and entered the unprotected arm hole. At first the President did not realize he had been hit. They were well on the way to the hospital to check him “just in case”, when they saw he was bleeding. President Reagan was healthy, but elderly. He had just taken a bullet in the chest. Anything could happen.

Once it was determined that he was going into surgery, President Reagan looked at the assembled military doctors. He was their Commander In Chief, but he joked with them, “Are you guys Republicans?”

A doctor replied to him, “We are all Republicans today, Mr. President.”