Countdown Clock (Cameron Baller)

Title: Countdown Clock

General Information About Item:

Informant Data:

A.W. is a 20-year-old male. He was born in Carnegie, Nebraska but was raised in Roanoke, Texas. He currently lives Stillwater, Oklahoma as he attends Oklahoma State University. He majors in mechanical engineering with a discipline in design. He is a student-athlete at Oklahoma State University and is a running back on the football team.

Contextual Data:

A.W. attends Oklahoma State University where football is extremely valuable. Each and every weekend in the fall is organized and planned around the team’s game. Therefore, the coaching staff wants to motivate the team each and every week by giving them a clear vision of what they are working for. The countdown clock is a reminder to block out the distractions and make the most out of today because the clock is ticking down to gameday. It creates anticipation and motivation for the team to continue to work hard every time they pass the clock and stay focused on their opponent that week despite all of the outside distractions that may come.

Item:

There is a countdown clock at Oklahoma State that is located between the locker room and the weight room. It is a countdown to gameday each week. The clock is first turned on at the beginning of preseason fall camp and is then reset after each game. It counts down to the second for the opening kickoff against their next opponent.

Transcript:

“Our main tradition is that we have this clock that is between the weightroom and the locker room and its a countdown timer of who our next opponent is. So if we are out in fall camp, it will be counting down for a whole month for the same team but each week it counts down for each game.”

Informant’s Comments:

“The meaning behind this is to keep the main goal the main goal. Its defintely to focus on who our opponent is each week so that we can take it week by week. It’s a reminder that each week we only have to focus on one opponent. This tradition that been up at Oklahoma State since I’ve been up there and I do not know when it started.”

Collector’s Comments:

I thought this countdown clock was extremely interesting because it is a way to keep the team focused on a particular goal and is positioned in a place so that the team can see it every time they enter the locker room as a reminder.

Collector’s Name: Cameron Baller

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive