How widespread are some college football traditions?
I began musing on this question earlier today, as I was standing up through most of a football game. As much I would like to think the University of Texas is unique, I want to be sure. Do any other universities:
Stand up through an entire game?
Fire a cannon after every touchdown, field goal, kickoff or ending of a quarter?
Have spirit organizations dedicated to caring for the mascot? (The Silver Spurs are responsible for tending Bevo during games, a duty which involves a special bucket and shovel)
Have a public indicator of winning a game? (UT lights the Tower orange)
Hold a special rally before a game with a rival school? (UT holds a red candle Hex rally before Aggie games)
I know a certain university in Texas has many of these traditions, and I’m willing to concede UT might have picked some of these up through its long rivalry with said school.
How about it? Do any other schools do these things? If not, what interesting traditions do they have?
U of Wisconsin does the standing up during the game. Only in the student sections though.
Every kickoff, keys are rattled until the ball is in the air.
They also have lovely chants back and forth of “Eat Shit!” and “Fuck you!” which can occasionally be heard over TV broadcasts.
Don’t know if this is still going on, but waaaay back in the early 70’s, the deck gun (“cannon”) in front of the Navy ROTC buildling at Georgia Tech would go from Navy gray to pink, the night before Navy and GT played football.
Va. Tech teams are now known as the “Hokies” (don’t ask), but back in the seventies they were called the “Gobblers”, which is a nickname for turkeys. The scoreboard had a huge turkey head on it, and a gobbling sound would be played through speakers after every score. And get this, they had a pen in the endzone with live turkeys.
I only went to the first half of one game when I was at Purdue, but there was a “tradition” of passing girls overhead in the student section. All I could think was “What if they drop one of them?” But I have no idea if it continued thru the season or even till today. I graduated in '79…
At Pennsylvania (not Penn State), we sang our equivalent of a fight song and then hucked toast on the field at the end of the third quarter of every game. “Here’s a TOAST to dear old Penn”…
When did UT fans start standing during the whole game? I went to school there in the 60’s and 70’s and now have season tickets, but have never stood through an entire game. Is this just done in the student section now?
Virginia Tech fires a cannon when they score. The fans also do the key chain rattle for kickoffs. The sound of the turkey is alive and kicking, I’m pleased to report. The last one I can think of offhand is that some members of the Corps of Cadets do pushups for each point scored.
At SMU most of the students stand through the game, the entire band does as well. Most of the traditions are in the Mustang Band actually…4th Quarter Beanies and such.
We also have the tradition of losing football games…sigh.
I don’t know when this started, but it was in place when I started UT in '98. I’ve never sat in anything but the student section, so I can’t say if it’s just students.
At Notre Dame we have a tradition of standing firmly behind our head football coach, win or tie.
Hear that Bob?
(Not that I’m bitter about getting trounced by Nebraska again. Cripes, for the whole first half the whole Irish team panicked and acted like they never saw the color red before. But I digress from the OP.)