Rally Possum
Informant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.
Verbal Lore: Folk speach, slang, – associated:urban legend, material, tradition, ritual, superstition, charm
English
United States of America
Context: A Rally Possum is in reference to an event that happened several weeks ago, where a possum wandered out onto a baseball field where LSU ( Louisiana State University) was losing to Arkansas by 8 or 9points. the delay caused by the possum, allowed the LSU team to rally and eventually go on to win the game and the next 11 games after that. The team and the fans began using the term in reference to the possum because they believed it to be a charm for good luck and have quickly developed a ritual of carrying around stuffed possums or wearing rally possum shirts and and it is turning into a tradition.
Transcript:
“Lastly, new traditions are always being developed. New Orleanians and Louisana-ans are crazy about their sports teams, now the LSU baseball team has a ‘rally possum’. It seem that during a recent LSU game agains Arkansas, LSU was trailing by 8 or 9 runs. A possum got out onto the field, causing a delay in play. After the game resumed LSU rallied and won that game and went on to win the next 11 subsequent games. Thus now the players carry around a stuffed possum in the dugout and fans can buy ‘rally possum’ shirts.”
Collectors commentary: As mentioned above, the Rally Possum phenomenon is a mix of multiple folklores, even if we are specifically trying to focus on the folk speach term itself. Regardless of the mixture of types and genres it is a very new development and may fall into obscurity by this time next year, but at the moment, the term and the superstition, ritual and tradition, is on every LSU baseball fan’s mind and tongues right now. Rally Possum has been transmitted orally from fan to fan and even orally across the TV, it has also been written about in News outlets, but their is no specific author to the term or originator of the rituals, it is merely a folklore that is unique to the folk group of LSU baseball fans, many of whom live in and are from New Orleans.
Key words: New Orleans, Rally Possum, LSU, Arkansas, baseball