Football

Title: Football

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Ritual
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Taylor Matherson
  • Date Collected: 2/23/18

Informant Data:

  • Taylor Matherson was born in Newton, MA, on March 29, 1999. She currently lives in Walpole, MA. She has one older sister and one older brother. She attended Tabor Prep for high school and is a freshman at Dartmouth College playing Varsity hockey.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Before sporting events, professional and amateur athletes warm up to ensure that they are lose for their game or match. Many athletes like to juggle a soccer ball, play wall-ball, or even work on their hand eye coordination with tennis balls. It is very common to practice a type of physical workout, aside from the team warmup, in collegiate Varsity sports.
  • Social Context: The women’s ice hockey team likes to split into different groups after the team warm up. Some people sit in the stands, some people, tape their sticks, and the rest take part in games. There are two main “game” groups on the team. One group juggles a soccer ball together and the other group throws a football around.

Item:

  • On the concourse of Thompson Arena, the rink on Dartmouth College’s campus, Taylor and four of her teammates play football. This pre-game ritual and warm up has been a tradition on the Dartmouth Women’s Ice Hockey Team for three years now. The five of them spread out and Taylor starts with the ball. She will then throw it, as best she can, down the concourse to her other teammates. They throw the football back and forth for about ten minutes and then go to the locker room to get ready for the game.

 

 

Transcript:

  • “It helps me take my mind off the other team and lets me loosen up before it’s time to focus… It’s also funny to see how far we can all throw it and how good our aim is… it’s funny when we mess up and the ball goes into the stands but stinks when we have to go get it.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It helps to loosen the players wrist up before the game.

Collector’s Comments:

  • It’s interesting to see the team playing football before the hockey game. As a hockey player, you usually only hear of people warming up with tennis balls or a group of people juggling a soccer ball, but this is cool and different.

Collector’s Name: Kate Landers

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore
  • Ritual
  • Football

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