Title: Singing the Alma matter
General Information about Item:
- Verbal Folklore: Ritual
- English
- United States of America
Informant Data:
- Name: Buddy Teevens
- Dartmouth YG: 1979
- Residence: Hanover, New Hampshire
- Years of experience coaching: 26 years
- Current position: Head Coach of Dartmouth Football
Contextual Data:
- Cultural Context:
- This ritual calls on pride in Dartmouth football and Dartmouth itself. The players and supporters of this school and program have a culture of pride in the Big Green.
- Social Context:
- This occurs after a football team between the team and the fans as well.
Item:
- Ritual: Singing the Alma matter
- This occurs after a football team between the team and the fans as well. The team joins arms on the field and sings the alma matter as the fans in the stands do the same back to the players.
Transcript of Associated File:
Coach Teevens: And now it’s kind of in place guys know what we’re talking about with the toughness and physicality, you know the singing after. It’s kind of neat how people stay in the stands and we go on the road and people New York was wonderful– tough loss to Columbia, but you know there’s a couple hundred kids that have played for us over the years that have stayed for the alma matter, and a lot of women joining in, their wives or their girlfriends and to me that was the Dartmouth thing. And we played hockey as well and that’s kind of neat, sold out place and everybody’s arm in arm, and you know I’ve tried to get that going in some of the other sports way back when but I guess I’m an old school guy… But in our little world that’s what we do. And after that after a win we go back into Leverone we get together and there’s the “Backs Go Tearing By” it’s the football medley is what it’s termed and you don’t hear it much anymore, it’s why you hear the band play it, I think a lot of people don’t know what it is. But with us we taught them that song just kind of culminates with the amount of points you beat the opponent by and then you count them off. You count them forty-something, fifty, you go “1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.”
Collector’s Name: Kristen Maiorano
Tags/Keywords:
Verbal Folklore, ritual, football, alma matter