Title: The Gauntlet

General Information about Item:

• Verbal Folklore: Ritual
• English
• United States of America

Informant Data:

• Name: Curt Oberg
  • Dartmouth YG: 1978
  • Residence: Hanover, New Hampshire
  • Years of association with Dartmouth Football as an assistant coach: 3
  • Current position: Special Assistant to the Head Coach

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context:
  • This is done by players to help the team get energized and prepared to play the game ahead.
• Social Context:
  • Before a Dartmouth football game there is a tradition of lining up outside the team’s locker room so that teammates could run through almost as if it is a tunnel.

Item:

• Ritual: Gauntlet
  • Before a Dartmouth football game there is a tradition of lining up in two tight lines outside the team’s locker room so that teammates could run through almost as if it is a tunnel. This energizes the team and pumps them up for the game

Transcript of Associated File:

Coach Oberg: There was still not a large number of women on campus so there was a lot of singing in fraternities and singing in the football program and so you know one of the things Coach T did was bring that back in terms of singing the alma matter and you know another thing that was a tradition when we played was which is sort of back in a different kind of format was when we came out of the locker room the entire freshman class would line up in a gauntlet coming out of the old Davis Varsity house and you as football players would run through the gauntlet all the way to the field all the way to the sideline so it was a really awesome tradition for us and then that was gone when Coach Teevens came back and you know there’s a little bit of that now when we come out of Leverone when we have the gauntlet coming out. But that gauntlet was really neat back then because you would literally walk in between, just people were really tight to you and there were like two or three people deep and you’d come through and you got chills up your spine when you were coming out of the locker room. It was a pretty neat tradition back then.

Collector’s Name: Kristen Maiorano

Tags/Keywords:

Verbal Folklore, ritual, football, gauntlet

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

Title: The Woods

General Information about Item:

• Verbal Folklore: Material
• 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 is part of a “Dartmouth” spirit which the football team has created. Dartmouth athletes have a respect for the resilience that the woods offer as a setting for sporting events.
• Social Context:
  • The woods are meant to be respected by the players and be a source of motivation to stick to their values as athletes and people.

Item:

Material:

• The woods are a place of meaning for the players, and a source of motivation to stick to their values of resilience and toughness as athletes and people.

Transcript of Associated File:

Coach Teevens: But still the idea of “we’re from the woods”. And that’s something that’s creeped in, the granite of New Hampshire, the muscles and the brains, we’ve kind of said hey where are we? From a recruiting standpoint whats the negative? Well you’re in the middle of no place. Let’s spin that into something that’s a positive. We’re in the middle of no place, the frost, the woods, the lovely dark and deep, its uh kind of ominous

Collector’s Name: Kristen Maiorano

Tags/Keywords:

Verbal Folklore, material, football, woods

Title: Toughness

General Information about Item:

• Verbal Folklore: Belief
• 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
• Name: Curt Oberg
  • Dartmouth YG: 1978
  • Residence: Hanover, New Hampshire
  • Years of association with Dartmouth Football as an assistant coach: 3
  • Current position: Special Assistant to the Head Coach

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context:
  • The coaches encourage the team to be tough in everything that they do, particularly in practices and games.
• Social Context:
  • This belief is fostered as the team’s culture, players are taught to use this belief to guide their behavior in everything they do.

Item:

• Belief: The team holds the belief that they need to be physically and mentally tough as a way of life and as a football program.

Transcript of Associated File:

Coach Teevens: My memories of Dartmouth Football, and Curt was a part of it he was one of the older guys he was kind of the star of the team, the captain and so forth, there was always a toughness associated. And you know we didn’t have some of the fancy things that Princeton might have or Harvard or Yale but it was just kind of there’s a Dartmouth spirit and you heard about it, and okay what was that? And to me it was kind of embodied by the tough guys. And who was that center from Seattle?

Coach Oberg: Jim Lucas

Coach Teevens: Jim Lucas. He would just broken hand, sprained ankle, you know he would just go out and play. And there was really a pride in being the tough guy. We’ve had to kind of modify that a little bit here because of injuries with concussive issues and all that but still the idea of “we’re from the woods”. And that’s something that’s creeped in, the granite of New Hampshire, the muscles and the brains, we’ve kind of said hey where are we? From a recruiting standpoint whats the negative? Well you’re in the middle of no place. Let’s spin that into something that’s a positive. We’re in the middle of no place, the frost, the woods, the lovely dark and deep, its uh kind of ominous, and uh kind of preaching that with our guys. So there’s a toughness that hey, Princeton gets on their bus they’ve got their Gucci loafers, their scarves on and so forth coming up 91 it just gets where we’re going. So we kind of play in the mindset of tough physical play. And that was the onset you know, we weren’t real good when we first came back here, I think, the importance of Dartmouth football somehow kind of drifted. And there was almost a “we’re mediocre and that’s okay”. And trying to change the mindset to where “hey it’s real important”. You guys are athletes you put a lot of time and effort into it. For what? And are you just playing for yourselves and to say it’s about me? No you’re playing for all the guys that wore the uniform before. In your cases you know the different sports that you play. And does that resonate with people? I think you have individual goals and you have team goals. And there’s if you look out here we got the All-Ivy’s Players individual goal, and then the team deal. And those are the two, hey how good can you be? Because the better you are the better we’re gonna be. And then what are you willing to sacrifice for the good of the team. And so we talk about toughness in practice and physicality, and kind of playing through stuff. You have bumps? Okay I get that you can play with that. You have injuries you’re crutched up you’re surgically repaired, but you still have that mindset that I’m committed to what I’m doing. And I think it’s passed from class to class and you know when I first came back we were graduating 6,7, 9 guys. You know the attrition rate was just horrendous. And why did they not come out, “I lost the love of the sport, my hearts not in it” I heard all that stuff, And I just flipped it back I said, “Guys weren’t tough enough to see things through” And the guys that are here I don’t care if you win or lose or what, how tough are you in your mindset that’s a Dartmouth mindset that you’re tough guys up in the woods, that’s we’re gonna all compete. And that seemed to kind of take hold over time. Pride in who you were. We’d sing the alma matter, win or lose didn’t make a difference and you know no body used to stand in the stands and some of the guys I think were a little bit embarrassed by it, but I’m proud this is who we represent, which resonated that was a big thing.

Coach Oberg: Singing when we were in school was always a big thing. We had gotten here just after women had started coming to Dartmouth so there was still not a large number of women on campus so there was a lot of singing in fraternities and singing in the football program and so you know one of the things Coach T did was bring that back in terms of singing the alma matter and you know another thing that was a tradition when we played was which is sort of back in a different kind of format was when we came out of the locker room the entire freshman class would line up in a gauntlet coming out of the old Davis Varsity house and you as football players would run through the gauntlet all the way to the field all the way to the sideline so it was a really awesome tradition for us and then that was gone when Coach Teevens came back and you know there’s a little bit of that now when we come out of Leverone when we have the gauntlet coming out. But that gauntlet was really neat back then because you would literally walk in between, just people were really tight to you and there were like two or three people deep and you’d come through and you got chills up your spine when you were coming out of the locker room. It was a pretty neat tradition back then.

Collector’s Name: Kristen Maiorano

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Folklore, belief, football, toughness

Title: Princeton Game

General Information about Item:

• Genre and Sub Genre
  • Verbal Folklore: Tale

• Language: 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
• Name: Curt Oberg
  • Dartmouth YG: 1978
  • Residence: Hanover, New Hampshire
  • Years of association with Dartmouth Football as an assistant coach: 3
  • Current position: Special Assistant to the Head Coach

Contextual Data:

• Social Context
  • This story is told by the coaches to the players, when they are in need of motivation.
• Cultural Context
  • Used to teach players Dartmouth Football mentality and culture. It uses the importance of toughness and the mentality of “them and us.” This means that it doesn’t matter who they play, it only matters that they play Dartmouth Football.

Item:

Tale: Princeton Game

• A story of Princeton being one the best teams in the nation
• At the end of the game a blizzard started and whited out the sky.
• In the end, Dartmouth won the football game and demonstrated what type of team they really were.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

• Coach Oberg: Princeton was undefeated, Dartmouth was you know very good too, I think they had one lose, or two loses but it was the last game of the year….

  Coach Teevens: They had a chance to win sole possession of the championship. And their coming up, and sometimes you say stuff and you don’t know how it resonates with guys, but I know that one specifically, was hey the guys are coming up, they’re getting in their gucci loafers, and the wrap around tie the to  collard sweaters and they’re getting into the bus and they coming up here and they think they own you guys. But interns toughness they don’t know what they are stepping into, its cold and rainy and all that, it doesn’t make a difference, thats where we live thats what we do. And its the toughest team is going to win on Saturday, and we came out and we played real good football. Then all of a sudden real late in the 4th quarter it starts snowing and my guys go “ahhhhh” and I mean they just went in the tank. And then we physically beat them up and beat them down, it was a tremendous win. That stuffs probably embellished I don’t think i did anything special other then just said hey thats them this is us, as a true Ivy. You kind of make stuff up as you go along.

Collector’s Name:

Evelyn Bird

Tags/Keywords:

Toughness, Tale, Verbal Folklore, Football

Title: Sit with a stranger

General Information about Item:

• Genre and Sub Genre
  • Customary Folklore: Custom

• Language: 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:

• Social Context
  • The players take the time to follow their coaches advice and intergrate with other members of the community that they would otherwise not meet, during meal times.
• Cultural Context
  • This custom helps the players branch out in the Dartmouth community to not only make new friends but also exemplify the leadership and inclusive atmosphere the Dartmouth Football coaches instill in their players.

Item:

Custom: Sit with a stranger

• To become more involved in the community, Coach Teevens encourages the players to sit with other people in the dining hall instead of just sitting as a team at meals.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

• Coach Teevens: I push them. Sit with a stranger is an initiative we have. I tell them day to day, go up in the dinning hall and sit with someone you don’t know, I’m going to call you out on it next week and ask you about it.

Collector’s Name:

Evelyn Bird

Tags/Keywords:

Community, Custom, Customary Folklore, Football

Title: “A” Day

General Information about Item:

• Genre and Sub Genre
  • Customary Folklore: Custom

• Language: 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:

• Social Context
  • The coaches acknowledge the students for their success in the classroom in a group setting with the rest of the team.
• Cultural Context
  • This custom allows the coaches and team to acknowledge the success these student athletes have in the classroom, in a way to help promote a healthy idea of academic excellence on the team.

Item:

Custom: “A” Day

• To demonstrate academic excellence, every Thursday the coaches look at their players’ grades from that week, and put together a power point for their meeting that afternoon to congratulate those players for earning an “A” on his assignments.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

• Coach Teevens: Its a way that I can demonstrate excellence in the academic arena. So we just sit around here on Thursday and we go through every name, by name of my kids on my team and I write down anybody that goes in the ‘A’  list and the academic advisor for anyone she needs to see. That afternoon we put a powerpoint up on the board, and its pretty cool. And its a competition as well, guys up there with, the triple called, guys get a triple and you get your own name and your own round of applause. You can sit back down and say ‘taught week for you’. (laughs from Hailey, Kristen and Evie). So its helped us with our academic success…..

Collector’s Name:

Evelyn Bird

Tags/Keywords:

Academics, Custom, Customary Folklore, Football

Title: “Are you an eagle or a pigeon?”

General Information about Item:

• Verbal Folklore: Proverb

• 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:

• Social Context
  • The coaches say this to the players to encourage them to be leaders and take charge.

• Cultural Context
  • This proverb helps players mentally decide what kind of player they want to be and reminds them that they should be strong and act individually like an eagle, instead of hiding and following the crowd like a pigeon.

Item:

• Proverb: “Eagle or pigeon”
  • A saying used by the coaches to encourage players.

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

Transcript of Associated File:

•  Coach Teevens: The Bystander Initiative, act on, talk about leadership. I tell the guys, ideally its you are an eagle or a pigeon. You know  eagles fly, they’re not afraid to make decisions on their own, and pigeons, they just want to live with each other.

Collector’s Name:

• Evelyn Bird

Tags/Keywords:

• Verbal Folklore, proverb, leadership, football