Author Archives: f00312s

Pregame Prayer (Evan Hecimovich)

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General info:

  • Type of Lore: Verbal/Customary/Material
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: N.G.
  • Date collected:11/4/2021

Informant Data: N.G. is a 5th year Senior at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. He has lived in Naperville his entire life. While playing for Naperville North High School, he would play one game a year at his current team’s stadium.

Context:

Cultural: North Central is a very successful division 3 football program with a national championship on their record from 2019. It is a private Christian university. The teams head coach takes the schools religious background very seriously.

Social: William Shatzer was a member of the North Central College class of 1942 where he was an All-American football player. He had an opportunity to go the NFL, but with the entrance of the USA into World War 2, he volunteered for the Navy Air Corp. in 1944 he was shot down over the Pacific and never seen again.

Item: Before each game, the team heads out the statue of William Shatzer that stands outside the entrance to the locker room. Here the coach speaks about the sacrifice Shatzer made and they take a moment of silence to reflect. After this the team is led in a prayer by the head coach.

Transcript: “Before every game we head out to this statue of someone who played here in the 40’s and was a fantastic player with a chance to go the league. Instead, he joined the Military and went MIA. Here our coach talks about selflessness, and we have a chance to reflect. He then leads us in our pregame prayer.”

Informant comments: “I think its really about being selfless. Here you have this guy that had a great opportunity for his future but gave it up to fight for something bigger than himself.”

Shower Games (Evan Hecimovich)

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General info:

  • Type of Lore: Customary, Games
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: A.L.
  • Date collected:10/29/2021

Informant Data: A.L. graduated from Valparaiso University in 2019 after playing four years of football. He is originally from Lisle, Illinois where he grew up with his two parents and sister. A.L. has always been a large individual for his age and began football in the 4th grade. A.L. and his friends growing up would often play tackle football without pads in the park, which is where he first discovered his passion for the game.

Context:

  • Cultural: Valparaiso is a division 1 FCS football program. They typically do not win most of their games. Valparaiso is in the non-scholarship Pioneer League and most of the players are playing for the love of the game. It is a private Catholic University in Indiana.
  • Social: With Valparaiso traditionally not a winning program, the occasions in which they win games are very special. Players get especially excited over wins. The team enjoys celebrating these wins together in the locker room.

Item: Following a victory, players head into the locker room as they usually do and after some initial celebrations, begin to get in the showers. In the showers, several upperclassmen will cut to the front of the line with only their helmets on. The people in the shower will spray their soap in the middle of the shower and turn their showerheads so they are spraying the middle of the shower. The upperclassmen will then slide through the middle of the showers into the far wall.

Transcript: “After we win and talk with our coaches, we head to the locker room to celebrate. Everyone begins to take their stuff off following the game. The seniors put on their helmets and head to the shower. The people in the showers already spray their soap in the middle of the showers to make it slippery. So, then the seniors slide down the middle of the showers sort of like a slip n slide into the wall at the end.”

Informant Comments: As wins are not come by that often, the celebration with your teammates afterwards makes it that much more special.

Club Dub (Evan Hecimovich)

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General info:

  • Type of Lore: Customary, Dances
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: M.A.
  • Date collected:11/8/2021

Informant Data: M.A. is a member of the class of 2021 at Amherst College where he plays football. He returned for the 2021 season after the Covid-19 Pandemic cancelled his senior season. He is originally from Cheshire Connecticut where his father is a high school football coach. Being the son of a football coach, the sport has always been a huge part of his life and upbringing.

Context:

  • Cultural: Being a division 3 school, there are no scholarships for athletics. The athletes on these teams are playing primarily for fun and their love of the sport. M.A. plays for this reason and believes many of his teammates share his passion. Amherst is a competitive school in their collegiate division.
  • Social: A handful of individuals on the team are from Illinois and therefore fans of the Chicago Bears. In 2018 the Chicago bears started a tradition where they would hire a DJ, have colorful lights set up, and have a dance party amongst the team following wins both home and on the road. Videos of these celebrations were often posted to the internet and spread widely.

Item: Following a victory, Amherst celebrates with their own version of “Club Dub”. Someone on the team, typically a senior or captain, takes control of the speakers and plays music in the locker room. Another individual (or a few) will flip the lights in the locker room on and off rapidly to create a sort of strobe light. Others will take their phones out and flip the flashlights on and off to add to the light show. In this environment the teammates dance and celebrate their win together.

Transcript: “We do a sort of celebration after each of our wins. We call it Club Dub and it’s based on the Club Dub that the Chicago Bears are known to do. It started in 2018 when the Bears started doing it and someone on the team brought it up and thought it would be a fun way for our program to celebrate victories. We obviously don’t have the same funding as an NFL team so we just have one of the old guys take aux and create the light effect by flashing the lights on and off in a strobe and using phone lights. “

Informant’s comments: It is a fun way to celebrate a win and let loose with teammates after a hard week of preparation and game.

Freshman Conditioning (Evan Hecimovich)

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General info:

  • Type of Lore: Customary, Initiation Rite
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: E.W.
  • Date collected: 11/2/2021

Informant Data: E.W. is a 2/021 graduate of Butler University where he played football from 2017-2019. He played running back and was transitioning to cornerback before Covid-19 cancelled the season

Context:

  • Cultural: Butler is a private university in Indiana. While the Basketball team is well known for its national success, The football plays in the FCS non-scholarship Pioneer Football League.
  • Social: The item serves as a rite of initiation that every upperclassman had gone through at one point. It enables bonding through shared experiences and humor. It is done with harmless intentions and everyone has a good laugh about it afterwards.

Item: The upperclassmen would tell the Freshman they were going to run sprints early in the morning. As a rite of passage, the Freshman had to go to the locker room and put on all their pads and gear. Everyone would line up to begin the sprints, and as they began, the upperclassmen would fall behind and leave the field. The Freshman would continue running downfield for up to 100 yards before realizing it was all a joke.

Transcript:” So during camp each year we convince the freshman we are going to do extra conditioning led by the upperclassmen. This is during camp when the days are very long already. We get them early in the morning and tell them they have to go into the locker room and put on their pads for it as a sort of initiation thing. Once they come out, we line up for sprints and start. At the start of the sprint we all just go kind of slow and then stop and let the freshman continue to sprint as we all just leave the field and go back to our rooms. Some of them go the whole field before noticing we’re gone. “