Title: The Terrible Towel

General Information about Item:

• Customary Lore, Sports Ritual
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Joseph Moll
• Date Collected: 05-29-2020

Informant Data:

• Joseph was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 31, 2000. He is currently a ‘22 on the Dartmouth Men’s Swim and Dive team. His whole family has lived in Pennsylvania for three generations. He is the oldest of 4 sons, who all play sports. His mom and dad both played sports when they were younger as well; his dad played volleyball and his mom played basketball. 

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: The “terrible towel” is a known rally towel associated with the Steelers. Thousands of fans own one of these towels and they can be seen at every Steelers home game. The ritual began during the 1979 NFL season. During this season, the Steelers ended up winning the Super Bowl and the ritual became part of Joe’s family.
• Social Context: This folklore was collected over the phone during the Covid-19 pandemic. Joe’s family has lived in Pennsylvania for 3 generations now. As a result, they are all passionate Pittsburgh Steelers fans. When Joe’s grandfather was younger, he watched the Steelers games every week and he passed down a ritual to Joe. Now, Joe and his brothers perform this ritual every season.

Item:

• This ritual involves keeping the “terrible towel” on his TV throughout the whole season. During games, he would take the towel off the TV and put it on his head. Every time the game went in the Steelers’ favor, like scoring a touchdown or catching an interception, Joe would swing the towel around- a distinct feature of Pittsburgh Steelers fans.

Transcript:

• “This ritual was started by my grandfather, but my brothers and I have carried it on. We keep our (terrible) towel on our TV for the whole football season, but during games we wear it on our heads. Whenever something good happens during the game, we take it off our head and swing it around in the air. My grandfather started doing this during the 1979 season when the Steelers won the Super Bowl so it has been done ever since.”

Informant’s Comments:

• The informant had no additional comments.

Collector’s Comments:

• Steelers fans are known to be very committed fans. This generalization lines up with Joe’s ritual.

Collector’s Name: Dylan Chan

Tags/Keywords:

• Customary Lore
• Pittsburgh Steelers
• Football