During the national anthem, the fans shouted “Red!” for the “rocket’s red glare” part of the song. Two nights ago I attended another Capitals game, and this time the “Red!” chant was much more pronounced and anticipated by all the Washington faithful. After the Capitals starting racking up goals against the Maple Leafs, the crowd mocked the goalie after each goal with a familiar cheer. It went something like “One, Two, Three, Four….[Number of Goals Scored], It’s All Your Fault!” Lacking in both coordination and vigor, it was a rather lame rendition of the cheer we do every time we score against an opposing team.
To his credit, Dennis says he doesn't "entirely disapprove of Caps fans doing these cheers," and speculates that Cornell alumni were the ones who started the cheers.
But, who knows? What we do know is that cheer "stealing" is quite common in college hockey. Just look at how many cheers are shared among the fans of ECAC schools. Things like "one minute remaining... and Cornell still sucks" can be heard in several different rinks. I'm not the only person who plays the cowbell at games.
The history of some Cornell cheers is known. The tradition of waving newspapers during the opposing team's introductions began after a basketball game at the University of Scranton, in which those fans waved papers during Cornell free throws. The "black hole" cheer was actually stolen from Harvard fans back in the day. "Winning team...losing team" was stolen from North Dakota in 1980. "It's all your fault" was stolen from St. Lawrence fans in the early 1980s. Chanting "sieve" at opposing goalies came to Cornell after Big Red fans saw Wisconsin fans doing it in 1970. Cornell students didn't even stand for the entirety of hockey games until the late 1980s.
Things go the other way; Cornell fans will swear that many of the Michigan hockey cheers were stolen from Big Red fans after Cornell played a series in Ann Arbor during the early 1990s.
I'd like to think that at least some of our cheers and traditions are original, but in many cases it's clear that Cornell fans borrowed these things from other schools.
If the Capitals fans like some Cornell cheers, and they catch on at the Verizon Center, then good for them. Cornell fans certainly can't claim to hold copyrights or patents to any of these things.
I'm more impressed with fans who can come up with impromptu cheers and chants than those who can simply participate in the regular cheers. These things come and go... I think recently we've been witnessing the disappearance of the "blue line... idiot" cheer after icing offsides calls. A couple of years ago, this would come out after most icing calls (so long as the band didn't start playing). This year, you hardly ever hear people chanting it. Things change.
An article from a year ago in the Post. Note the comments:
ReplyDeletehttp://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/02/caps_fans_say_its_all_your_fau.html
Have you gone to a game this year? We do the "blue line... idiot" chant after practically every offside! (we're not supposed to do it after an icing!)
ReplyDeleteCornell students didn't stand for the entire game until 1992-3; previously it had been until Cornell's first goal. Part of the problem was that sometimes Cornell's first goal came awfully late that dreadful season (6-19-1); part was that the Daily Sun misrepresented the tradition as standing until Cornell's *third* goal. No idea why they did that, but the entire game thing stuck after '93.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information about that. It's interesting because it seems like Cornell hockey fans used to be more "dedicated" -- camping out for tix, getting to the games earlier -- but that standing up wasn't part of that tradition.
ReplyDeleteAs for the comment above, thank you for catching the error about icing/offsides. It's great that you're continuing to do the cheer, but I hardly ever hear it.