General Information about Item:

• Ritual / Superstition
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: USA
• Informant: MG
• Date Collected: 10/25/21 

Informant Data:

• MG is a ‘24 from Schaghticoke, New York on the Track & Field team. He has been on the team for two years and participates in the throwing events, specifically hammer, weight throw, and shot put. He began competing in track and field at Greenwich High School in NY during his sophomore year of high school in 2015. 

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: Clothing has been used throughout time in many different cultures as a way to distinguish when a certain event or ritual is taking place. Athletes all over the world at every level of competition have pieces of clothing/accessories that they consider lucky for game/race day. It is very common in the athlete world, and beyond, to have a lucky piece of clothing that is worn when the person wants to be successful.

Item:

• MG always wears the same pair of socks for each of his competitions. They are a pair of Captain America socks that was gifted to him by his mother. 

Associated File: 

Informant’s Comments:

• MG has continued to wear the same pair of socks because he has been very successful while wearing them and believes he will not do as well if he doesn’t wear them. This belief stems from the fact that all his personal records in high school and college were set in them and the few times he did not wear them he did not do as well. 
• Even though the item is falling apart (the socks have holes in them), MG says he can’t bring himself to get rid of them because he truly believes they give him the ability to get personal records. 
• The tradition stemmed from a family tradition of gifting and then wearing funny socks. He began wearing them to meets and noticed he seemed to do better with this particular pair, so he began to wear them more and more, making it grow into a habit and then a superstition. 

Collector’s Comments:

• As a varsity athlete myself, I definitely have heard of many of my past and current teammates who have a similar ritual/superstition for themselves. While I don’t currently have anything that I always wear for competition apart from the uniform, I have in the past. In high school during my junior and senior year, every track meet I wore the exact same pair of leggings after winning the state championship in them the year prior. I felt that I always performed better in them, and in the few times I didn’t wear them, I actually did worse. Similarly , when I played volleyball in high school, I always wore the same pair of socks and hair tie. I think this can be attributed to the fact that in a meet or a game you can’t control a lot of things, so the one thing you have total control over is yourself. Choosing to wear the same thing definitely helps in maintaining that little bit of control. I found having a so-called “lucky” accessory/clothing item always put me in the right mindset, gave me more confidence (even if it was unwarranted), and made me feel better going into competition. 
• This would fall into the category of material folklore, since it is something physical that athletes wear on race day. Additionally, it is a sign superstition in the form “If I do A, then B” because MG believed that wearing the socks would make him perform better. 
• While this isn’t a Dartmouth team specific tradition/superstition, this is just one example of the many athletes on the team who have similar superstitions. 

Collector’s Name:

• Madyson Buchalski