General Information

• Tradition
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: USA
• Informant: SM
• Date Collected: 11/19/2021

Informant Data

• SM was a soccer player in high school before switching to cross country. In high school he competed in the mile and 2 mile competitions. At Dartmouth he competes in the 5k and 10k for track and the 8k for cross country. He is the current captain of the cross country and track teams.

Contextual Data

• Cultural Context: Collective traditions are prevalent on many sports teams. They help instill comradery among the members and can improve team spirit and morale.

Item

• The captain, or the senior most member of the team, gathers everyone about 100 meters from the starting line and says “Men of Dartmouth set a watch”. The team then responds with “Lest the old traditions fail”.

Associated Audio Recording

Informant’s Comments

• SM says that there have been some really talented runners that came from Dartmouth and the tradition is meant to emulate them. Performing it will hopefully allow the runners to perform as well as the most talented runners that came before them.

Collector’s Comments

• This piece of folklore is particularly interesting because the point is for the current runners to perform as well as the runners of the past. This means that the traditions span across multiple decades and people of all ages that were a part of the team at some point share a common bond.

Collector’s Name

• Alex Printsev