Title: The Jersey Tuck

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Christina Rombaut is currently a sophomore on the varsity women’s ice hockey team. She is a biology major and was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. She started skating when she was three and started playing hockey when she was five. She has two older brothers, 21 and 22, and they are the reason why Christina started to play hockey.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: While Christina grew up playing hockey her whole life, she never sported the ‘full tuck’ style (tucking her hockey jersey in her pants). She feels a bond with each of the girls in the different classes that all share this fun “secret” between one another.
Social Context: Christina first learned about this folklore during the Thursday night practice before her first game freshman year. The three older girls in each class who were a part of this ritual sat her down and told her about this bequested ritual. She would be the girl in the 20’s class that would do full-jersey tuck for pre-game skate. She was very excited to do this but thought it was pretty odd at first because it’s very uncommon and considered “bad style”. But, she enjoyed being part of a small group on the team, which the rest of the team knew nothing about.

Item:

There is a pre-game skate for every Friday’s game and in this pregame skate, every player only wears sweatpants and a jersey. Christina is a girl from the sophomore class that tucks in her jersey all the way into her sweatpants because it was bequested to her. It looks terrible but when people ask you about it they can’t tell them that it’s a ritual. Only the people in the group know about it. There are only four players that do this ritual–one person from each class. A freshman is added each year to the group and the people in the group get to decide who joins among next year’s freshmen.

Christina Rombaut, sporting her full jersey tuck before pre-game skate

Transcript:

“This ritual is important to me because creates a bond between teammates and also adds fun to our pregame skates. People always chirp us for wearing our jersey fully tuck but it’s always good to have a laugh with those in the group cause we all know we look dumb but important to hold the tradition”

Informant’s Comments:

The jersey tuck is not an attractive look, but a fun tradition within the Dartmouth hockey program

Collector’s Comments:

I find this as a particularly special tradition because of the secretive significance. The bond between the four players seems to be something that they are able to have between each other without anyone else particularly aware. It is captivating seeing a psychical expression of something that is more internally motivating.

Collector’s Name: Brooke Ahbe

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive