Title: Bouncy Green Ball
Informant Info: Lindsay Knutson, Female, 20, from Wilton, Connecticut, Sophomore Women’s Soccer Player
Type of Lore: Customary, Ritual
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: Before every game, to get loose and to calm their nerves, the girls will kick around a big green bouncy ball. They usually do this in the locker room, but if it is not big enough they will go outside wherever they are.
Title: Breakdowns
Informant Info: Rivers Cahee -19, born and raised in Lafayette, La. Current Freshmen on the Dartmouth Football team
Type of Lore: Verbal Lore, Tradition
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: When the team comes together before/after a practice or lift or meeting, often times to breakdown they will all start clapping slowly, and then start to get faster and faster when the strength coach Spencer Brown raises his hand, causing the clapping to stop and for everyone to yell “Ahhhhhhhhh” and when he brings his hands down, everyone yells “GREEN”.
Associated File:
Collector’s Comments: We did not find any other form of tradition like this within any other sports.
Title: Don’t Step on the D in the Locker Room
Informant Info: Rivers Cahee -19, born and raised in Lafayette, La. Current Freshmen on the Dartmouth Football team
Type of Lore: Superstition
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: In the football locker room, in the center, there is a D on the carpet that is not to be stepped on. If you step on it, it is considered bad luck, and the only way to change the bad luck was to get down on your hands and knees to kiss it.
Associated File:
Collector’s Comments: This was one of the most common forms of folklore we saw between the sports teams, as not stepping on the D in the locker room occurs within a number of teams.
Title: Overall Superstitions of the members of the football team
Informant Info: Rivers Cahee -19, born and raised in Lafayette, La. Current Freshmen on the Dartmouth Football team
Type of Lore: Superstition
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: Members within the football team have very different forms of superstition, ranging from lucky socks to the type of eye black they wear on game day. Patterns of eyeblack is very common, along with wearing certain “lucky” headbands. In addition, some people will write down sayings or names of loved ones on their pads or tape. All of these superstitions are very important to members of the team, and certain people feel they will not be able to play well if they don’t do these certain things.
Associated File: 
Collector’s Comments: Superstitions like these were prevalent in a lot of the teams we talked to, but each had different forms and variations of the superstitions.
Title: Singing of the Alma Mater After Every Game
Informant Info: Rivers Cahee -19, born and raised in Lafayette, La. Current Freshmen on the Dartmouth Football team
Type of Lore: Verbal, Tradition
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: After every game, win or lose, the Dartmouth football team gathers and puts their arms around each other and faces their crowd, and sings the alma mater together, usually swaying back and forth with the beat of the song.
Informant’s Comments: “We usually do this after real games, but like, after the spring game, which is basically a scrimmage with ourselves, we do sing the alma mater to the crowd.”
Collector’s Comments: We weren’t able to tell if all sports teams take the alma mater as serious as the football team, because from what we gathered, football is the only team to sing after every game.
Title: “Great day to have a great day!”
Informant Info: Rivers Cahee -19, born and raised in Lafayette, La. Current Freshmen on the Dartmouth Football team
Type of Lore: Verbal
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: One saying that you’ll often hear while around the football team is “It’s a great day to have a great day!” or slight variations of this quote. It’s meant to be a motivational saying, mostly used on early mornings lifts or at the begining of a practice to try and get everyone pumped up and ready to go, when they might not necessarily be feeling very well.
Collector’s Comments: This is an interesting form of verbal lore that we did not see much of in any of the other teams.
Title: Playing Certain Songs After Wins
Informant Info: Rivers Cahee -19, born and raised in Lafayette, La. Current Freshmen on the Dartmouth Football team
Type of Lore: Customary, Ritual
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: After every game that the football team wins, in the locker room they have certain songs that they play in order to celebrate. These songs are mostly inappropriate, upbeat songs.
Collectors Comment’s: The informant declined to give the names of the songs, stating that he thought it would be best if he didn’t tell people every part of the ritual.
Title: Candles on the Field
Informant Info: Larson Bennett, Female, 20, Sophomore, lacrosse player from Rhode Island
Type of Lore: Customary, Ceremony
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: The night before the first home game of the year, all the girls will go out to the field at night with no lights, but each girl will be holding their own candle. While on the field, the girls will all take turns sharing stories.
Collector’s Comments: It seemed that there was more to this ceremony then was let on by the informant, such as what type of stories they shared while on the field or what they talked about in general.
Title: Lacrosse String Tied Around the Ankles of Freshmen
Informant Info: Larson Bennett, Female, 20, Sophomore, lacrosse player from Rhode Island
Type of Lore: Material, Ritual
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: At the begining of every season, all freshmen are given a piece of lacrosse string from an older girl on the team and they are to tie it around their ankle and keep it on all year for good luck.
Collectors Comment’s: This is ritualistic because it signifies the girls becoming a part of the team by being given this lacrosse string that all the other girls at one point were also given.
Title: Walking out to Warmups
Informant Info: Larson Bennett, Female, 20, Sophomore, lacrosse player from Rhode Island
Type of Lore: Customary, Superstition
Language: English
Country Of Origin: United States
Social/Cultural Context: When walking out to warm ups before every game, the girls will walk out with the same person every time, and they think it is bad luck if they don’t walk out with this person before every game.
Collector’s Comments: A form of superstition that we hadn’t seen in any of the other