LSU Football and Basketball Ritual

Title: LSU Football and Basketball Ritual

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Eric Lukenda is my little brother, age 14. He is a recent graduate of Cedar Drive Middle School in Colts Neck, New Jersey. He will be attending Colts Neck High School next September. He has been a loyal and dedicated supporter of Louisiana State University’s Football and Basketball programs since he first started following collegiate sports.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Louisiana State University’s athletic program is in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), which is a very competitive sports conference consisting of colleges in the South East region of the United States. LSU’s Basketball Program has been competitive for the past couple of years, along with their football team, who are the defending National Champions of all of college football.
Social Context: This item of folklore was collected during an in-person interview between my brother and I in our house. I knew he was a loyal LSU fan, as me and him traveled to watch the team play in Atlanta, Georgia earlier in the fall. I was curious to see what his game-day ritual was with the team.

Item:

Eric Lukenda always performs the same ritual before all of LSU’s basketball and football games. He either watches the games with his friends or family. He wears a jersey or some kind of article of clothing that references the team.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

“The ritual usually happens two to three hours before the game starts. The ritual consists of usually family and sometimes friends if it’s on the weekend. The ritual usually takes place at my house, but sometimes it can be at a friends house. Before the game, I usually post something about it on my social media saying when and where the game is. Sometimes I wear a LSU jersey, other times I wear a shirt or shorts that are related to LSU. There are no specific chants during the game, but I will cheer and clap when they score.”

Informant’s Comments:

Collector’s Comments:

I found Eric’s tradition to be interesting considering he is so young. His dedication to the team has also led me to follow both their basketball and football teams.

Collector’s Name: Logan Lukenda

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive