Tag Archives: Princeton

Clean Locker Room (Jake Guidone)

General Info
- Locker room tradition
- Type of Lore: Customary
- Informant: KB
- Place of Origin: Princeton, New Jersey
Informant Data:
- Kevin Bruce is a twenty one year old male who plays football at Princeton University. Kevin was born and raised in Needham, MA, where he attended Needham High School. He is currently a senior defensive lineman on the Princeton football team, and has resided in Princeton, New Jersey for the past four years.
Contextual Data:
- Princeton considers themselves to be atop the Ivy League, regardless of their record or season trajectory. They hold themselves to a high standard, and feel they play better when all players hold themselves accountable.
Tradition
- After every practice, every single Princeton player is responsible for helping to clean their locker room. Princeton takes their locker room very seriously, and believes if they can keep it looking clean (by doing the little things right), it will help them achieve perfection in the season. A clean locker room is the sign of a well organized team, and well run a team. This also brings the team closer together as a whole, helping build trust among players that everyone will do their part, and do it to perfection.

Princeton Superstitions

Title: Princeton Superstitions – Emma Kee

General Information about Item:

Customary Lore, Magic Superstition
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Informant: Emma Kee
Date Collected: 11/16/21

Informant Data:

Emma Kee is a female Princeton student in the class of 2023. She is from Cincinnati, Ohio but left home to go to boarding school in Faribault, MN in 8th grade. She is currently living in Princeton, NJ. Emma is on the ice hockey team and recently completed an internship in Washington, DC, which she hopes to return to full-time next year. Emma performs a superstition on game days that has been passed down throughout her family and is very meaningful to her.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: The cultural context is that putting gear on in a specific order is very common amongst hockey players in any league.
Social Context: The social context is that Emma performs this superstition with her sister after following their brothers’ lead.

Item:

This item is a customary type of folklore under the genre of magic superstition. Emma performs these before each home game.

Transcript:

“My older brother used to tie his skates before he put on his shin pads after seeing one of his teammates do it, and I always looked up to him growing up. Now I do as well, and my sister and I both follow his lead before our games, creating our own family superstition in order to play well.”

Informant’s Comments:

Emma recommended others who have siblings to create their own family superstitions that can be passed down for generations to create meaning to each time they play the game that they love.

Collector’s Comments:

I found this superstition to be very interesting. Emma told me her father performed the superstition, as well as her uncle, and knows her relatives did before them. This small way for her family to stay connected is very enlightening to me about how folklore is prevalent in our everyday lives.

Collector’s Name: Currie Putrah

Princeton Superstitions

Title: Princeton Superstitions – Annie Kuehl

General Information about Item:

Customary Lore, Sign Superstition, Magic Superstition
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Informant: Annie Kuehl
Date Collected: 11/10/21

Informant Data:

Annie Kuehl is a female Princeton student in the class of 2024. She is from Edina, Minnesota and lived there her whole life. She is currently living in Princeton, NJ. At school Annie is on the Women’s Ice Hockey team and plans to pursue a career in business. She has 2 superstitions that she follows strictly before games.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: The cultural context is being part of a team where other girls use white stick tape as well, which is a superstition passed down from team to team.
Social Context: The social context is interacting with people who also tape their back-up sticks before games, along with getting caffeine.
The magic substance in the superstition about taping her sticks is the white tape.

Item:

This item is a customary type of folklore under the genre of magic superstition. Annie performs these before each home game.

Transcript:

“If CVS is out of Celcius Green Tea Lemonade then I will go to Starbucks and get a Venti Iced Vanilla latte. I tape all 3 of my sticks with white tape before our team warm ups. ‘I once broke my stick and had to use my backup, which had the worst tape job of my life, so ever since then I’ve starting taping all 3,’”

Informant’s Comments:

Annie mentioned that if she did not do these two things or if she only taped two sticks then she would play badly and not be able to communicate with the women she plays with. She also said she now tapes her backup sticks with her linemates in order to play well.

Collector’s Comments:

I was very intrigued by Annie’s superstitions because she was the first person who mentioned a sign superstition. It was also interesting to hear about the reason she tapes all three of her sticks based on something that happened to her, but that how she started using white tape initially was because her idol on the team did before her.

Collector’s Name: Currie Putrah