I regularly hear the kid-league baseball coaches in the park getting their teams to shout “Oogie! Oogie! Oogie!” as some sort of rallying cry, but why that? Is this particular one widespread, or are there others in different areas? Does it mean something, or did it come from a bunch of coaches drinking too much beer after the game and trying to come up with the stupidest-sounding chant they could?
Anybody who can explain would make a hit with me!
I don’t have a cite, but I think it might be a derivative of “boogie.” As in “boogie-oogie-oogie.”
I look forward to the results of this thread. The cry is widely known: “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi” is heard here. I heard Oggie Oggie Oggie" in Wales at a rugby match some decades ago. The only thing I can think of that relates to it is a hot oggie which in Cornwall and Devon (Sth West England) is a type of pastie* well worth shouting about.
It’s not just kids, and it’s not just baseball, and it’s not just the US.
I have heard the “oogie” chant used here in the US, and in Australia, often by large groups of drunk adults. At international sporting events, Australians tend to replace “oogie” with “Aussie,” but the chant sounds no less ridiculous for this alteration.
I refuse ever to participate.
Here in the UK, we too have “Oggy Oggy Oggy! Oi! Oi! Oi!”, and I too have no idea where it came from. That oxford dictionary of phrases probably has it in - unfortunatly, I don’t own that book. I’m sure a clever doper SOMEWHERE will, however.
Right ladies and gentlemen, an explanation that may not apply the the US as this might have differant origins.
The cry should be,
Oggie, oggie, oggie!
the reply is
Oi, oi, oi!
It can often be heard at rugby union matches(plain old rugby to you 'murricans) and is commonly heard in the South-West of England around Devon and Cornwall.
Since there are a lot of Royal Navy main bases around Plymouth it has been preserved there and is also commonly heard in pubs and the like among navy types when out on a drinking spree.
Oggie, is a shortened term for Cornish pasty, look it up on Google, and Oggieland is, of course, Cornwall, the home of the pasty.
The Cornish pasty has a history of its own, which I shan’t go into since this will be a long enough post anyway, so get those search engines running.
The Royal Navy carries on a lot of half forgotten traditions dating back sometimes for centuries, I’m not sure of the age of this one though.
It is also heard at the end of a particularly rude song that is renditioned regularly by Rugby clubs and Royal Navy types, here is the first verse.
I once met a lad called Alladdin who had a magic lamp,
He stole it off a matelot who was fathoms up a tramp,
He stole it off a matelot, just to see what he could get,
…and he rubbed and he rubbed and he rubbed and he rubbed,
But he ain’t got f**k-all yet!
Fa-la la-la
Fa-la la-de
Sixteen annas, one rupee,
Feed of arse up a sycamore tree,
Old bugger janner.
(matelot=navy type)
(16 annas = 1 rupee dates back to the currency change in India a long while ago)
(Janner = person living in around Plymouth but especially Navy dockyard worker, often a source of amusement to navy types since it is alleged that dockies don’t actually do much)
(the rest of the song is somewhat ruder 
)
As you finish all the verses of the song it finishes of with a ‘war cry’ or ‘party on down cry’ as the mood fits.
so, continuation of the last bit of the song,
…and we’ll all go back to oggieland,
(where’s that?)-call and reply from singer to crowd )
to oggieland,
(where’s that?)
to oggieland,
(where’s that?)
…and we’ll all go back to oggieland,
Where they can’t tell suger from tissue paper, tissue paper,
Marmalade and jam,
Oggie, oggie oggie!!
Oi, oi ,oi
Oggie!(lone voice shouts this out)
Oi! (everyone else replies with this)
Oggie!
Oi!
Oggie Oggie Oggie!
**Oi,oi,oi! **
Sometimes the last part, the chant, is performed without the rest of the song, or it can be attatched to a couple of other rude songs genreally sung in a rowdy manner by Navy types and Rugby types and especially by Rugby playing Navy types.
Thanks casdave! I never expected such a great explanation!
I’ve always admired the British Navy, BTW, so that makes it just that much more interesting.