General Information about Item:

• Verbal Folklore: Jokes
• Customary Folklore: Festival + Song, Beliefs, Customs

• English

• United States of America

Informant Data:

Name: Alexander Agadjanian

• Dartmouth Class of 2018

• Residence: Hanover, New Hampshire (During the school year), Tempe Arizona (During off-terms)

• Years of association with The Dartmouth: 3rd year

• Age: 20 years old

• Affiliation with Dartmouth Football: Writer for The Dartmouth (Campus Newspaper)

 

Contextual Context:

Festival and Song  (“Arms around each other and Alma Mater”):

• Whether the football team wins or loses, all the players on the team put their arms around one another at the end of the game and start singing the Alma Mater facing the home crowd.

Customs and Beliefs: “Religious Prayers”:

• Around 1/2 – 2/3 of all players have been observed to partake in this custom and it can be deduced that those that pray before every game have a religious belief and are relying (in some form) on their faith to perform well.

Custom: Picture of the Field and Organization

• Writers, both from the area and around the country have access to the press box and they arrive early to prepare for the long game ahead of them. Whether it’s organizational customs or methods of relaxation, each writer has his/her unique approach before the start of every game.

Verbal Jokes – “Offensive Coordinator in the bathroom story”

• The writer’s room is adjacent to the defensive and offensive coordinator’s room and they share the same facilities and bathrooms. As a result, the three parties often interact more often than not, and funny stories that are consistently told throughout the press box are born.

Item:

Festival and Song  (“Arms around each other and Alma Mater”):

• All the players put their arms over one another and sing the Alma Mater after every game and are all crowded together.
• It is important to note that the Alma Mater itself is not a folklore (it is a piece of literature), but the performance is partly a festival and a song is involved.

Customs and Beliefs: “Religious Prayers”:

• As soon as the players run onto the field, the religious players will sprint to the other end zone, kneel down and pray before the start of every game. Some of them hold their hands in prayer and are silent and immobile from several seconds to several minutes.
• They are in deep thought and undisturbed and likely practicing their religious faith.

Custom: Picture of the Field and Organization

• Alexander makes sure to take a photo of the press box and the field, both at home and at away games, before the start of every game to make sure that he is enjoying every moment.

Verbal Jokes – “Offensive Coordinator in the bathroom story”

• There are several funny jokes that are told every so often, but one memorable one that is told around the writer’s room is when the Offensive Coordinator is in the bathroom and the team scored a touchdown pass and the assistant coach ran over to the bathroom and knocked on the door to tell the head offensive coach that they have possession of the ball.

 

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Interview with Alexander

 

Transcript of Associated File:

“By far the most visible ritual that you see when you go to a Dartmouth football game is the one that takes place after the game. They all join together hand in hand and sing the alma mater, facing the home crowd, so that obviously carries a lot of significance especially coming after the game. These games take such a physical and mental toll these games take, and at the end win or loss they all join together and sing. You can tell sometimes obviously after losses, the singing is a little less spirited, but it’s really hard to tell any dejection because they want to carry through this important ritual. Not only does it tie the players to each other, in terms of them singing together and physically joined arm and arm, but it also ties them to the history of the school and the history of the football program because I’m sure this has carried on for decades.

Another minor one that’s more common in college football is after their entrance onto the field, their final entrance right before the game, the more religious players sprint out to the opposite end zone and kneel and just say a prayer. A good ⅔ to a ¾ all go to the opposite end zone and say a prayer.

I really try to keep rituals for organizing myself and do something to capture the moment. Before the games, I try to take a picture of the press box view and take pregame notes before the game starts. In terms of close games, I’m focused on observing everything that I can and writing as many notes as possible, but you definitely see the tension in the press box.

So we have press row behind us and there’s a short flight of stairs that takes us to the bathrooms and we actually share those facilities and bathrooms with the team coordinators. At some point, it must have been an offensive coordinator who went to go to the bathroom and a few seconds after he went to the bathroom, his own team got an interception on defense. So the offensive coordinator who is calling all the plays is in the bathroom and his team is back on defense as he just left. So you hear his assistant sprint over to the bathroom and knock on the door and say, “Hey Coach, we just got the ball back, what do you want to call?” and he called a run play as basic as possible and sprinted out. Funny things like that come up every so often.

Once you contextualize all of these different rituals that I mentioned before in this school, obviously this is a school that really values its traditions and rituals and things that are passed on from generation to each new class and you can tell that it is just as meaningful, if not more meaningful, in the context that tradition is really valued.”

Collector’s Comments:

Alexander sheds a unique perspective into Dartmouth’s football games as he discusses his point of view as a writer in the press box covering every single football game throughout the season. He has some memorable interactions with defensive and offensive coordinators that is shared throughout the press box and to new writers. He is also able to accurately observe the player’s individual behaviors long before the start of the game and enjoy the team rituals at the end. Alexander also partakes in customs of his own to prepare for his responsibilities as a writer and reminds himself to enjoy the moment and soak everything in.

Collector’s Name:

Kang Min Daniel Lee