Adam Rittenberg: Introducing Nebraska to Big Ten traditions

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
61,035
Reaction score
16,616
Points
113
MINNESOTA Highlights

Spin Your Head: Minnesota fans love their mascot, Goldy, and during games fans will chant "Spin your head!" Goldy always obliges, delighting the crowd.

Ski-U-Mah chant: The famous phrase is more than 110 years old and incorporates "Ski," a Sioux battle cry for victory, with "U-Mah," representing the university. It appears in both Hail! Minnesota and the Minnesota Rouser, and is chanted at games.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/23610/introducing-nebraska-to-big-ten-traditions

Go Gophers!!
 

Northwestern
The Purple Clock: During the football season, the clock tower above the Rebecca Crown Center, which houses Northwestern's administrative offices, will turn purple or white depending on the outcome of games. Purple means a Wildcat victory; white means a Wildcat loss.

Idk why but I REALLY like this one.
 

BleedGopher said:
MINNESOTA Highlights

Spin Your Head: Minnesota fans love their mascot, Goldy, and during games fans will chant "Spin your head!" Goldy always obliges, delighting the crowd.

Ski-U-Mah chant: The famous phrase is more than 110 years old and incorporates "Ski," a Sioux battle cry for victory, with "U-Mah," representing the university. It appears in both Hail! Minnesota and the Minnesota Rouser, and is chanted at games.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/23610/introducing-nebraska-to-big-ten-traditions

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

No offense to Adam (as I'm sure he picked this stuff off school websites) but when's the last time you heard Ski-U-Mah chanted at any Gopher sporting event?
 


Gopher07 said:
No offense to Adam (as I'm sure he picked this stuff off school websites) but when's the last time you heard Ski-U-Mah chanted at any Gopher sporting event?
Click to expand...

I don't know, but it should be incorporated into a chant. Someone creative could make something cool out of it.
 


dpodoll68 said:
Every Gopher sporting event I've ever been to?
Click to expand...

As part of the Rouser, sure. As a standalone chant though?

Edit: And another point, the phrase "Ski-U-Mah" doesn't appear in our alma mater.
 

Gopher07 said:
As part of the Rouser, sure. As a standalone chant though?

Edit: And another point, the phrase "Ski-U-Mah" doesn't appear in our alma mater.
Click to expand...


They do have those Ski U Mah flags, bu they're rarely used.
 

U-Mah is representative of the University? I always heard that the "Mah" portion was added just to rhyme with "Rah".

Too sick to research that though.
 

Gopher07 said:
As part of the Rouser, sure. As a standalone chant though?
Click to expand...

Not as a standalone, no, but he never said that. When the band plays the "Minnesota March", there is a section where the entire band (and those singing along, of course) chants "Rah, rah, Ski-U-Mah, rah, rah, rah!" I know I do it every time, and I presume many others do as well.

Listen here if you are unfamiliar:

http://www.music.umn.edu/marchingband/songs/MinnMarch.mp3

Gopher07 said:
And another point, the phrase "Ski-U-Mah" doesn't appear in our alma mater.
Click to expand...

You are correct. He would've been better off saying "as part of several school songs and marches" to keep it generic and not be incorrect.
 



Unregistered User said:
I don't know, but it should be incorporated into a chant. Someone creative could make something cool out of it.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. I'd love to hear "SKI-U-MAH" chanted like we hear "Let's Go Hawks" or "Go Big Red"
 

IOWA Highlights:

During pregame, fans drink themselves to oblivion in order to forget their sad, pitiful lives as pig traders and corn farmers. Then, after Northwestern upsets them yet again they return home hungover and take out their aggressions on Bessie, the neighborhood heifer while listening to the Eagles.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Not as a standalone, no, but he never said that. When the band plays the "Minnesota March", there is a section where the entire band (and those singing along, of course) chants "Rah, rah, Ski-U-Mah, rah, rah, rah!" I know I do it every time, and I presume many others do as well.

Listen here if you are unfamiliar:

http://www.music.umn.edu/marchingband/songs/MinnMarch.mp3
Click to expand...

Very familiar, as a four-year band member. Was disappointed it never took off as a standalone chant though.

To be fair, he did not mention whether it was a standalone chant or not. I was envisioning Adam playing NCAA football on his PS3 though and listening to the awful "Raw raw raw ... skeeee U MAH" chant they installed and thinking that actually happened.
 

Gopher07 said:
No offense to Adam (as I'm sure he picked this stuff off school websites) but when's the last time you heard Ski-U-Mah chanted at any Gopher sporting event?
Click to expand...

Did people try to get a Ski-U-Mah chant going before a couple football games either last year or the year before? Didn't really seem to catch on, but I think I recall hearing it on TV before at least one game.
 



Tubtastic said:
IOWA Highlights:

During pregame, fans drink themselves to oblivion in order to forget their sad, pitiful lives as pig traders and corn farmers. Then, after Northwestern upsets them yet again they return home hungover and take out their aggressions on Bessie, the neighborhood heifer while listening to the Eagles.
Click to expand...

Minnesota is the #3 hog producing state and quickly gaining ground on #2 North Carolina. I know Iowa natives are disgusting people, but just an FYI that there are ample pig and corn farmers in Minnesota too.
 

Monty519 said:
Did people try to get a Ski-U-Mah chant going before a couple football games either last year or the year before? Didn't really seem to catch on, but I think I recall hearing it on TV before at least one game.
Click to expand...

They did try. But they did a terrible job promoting it (sort of started up out of nowhere) and didn't keep with it. I listed some simple ideas for how to help it catch on in my survey responses. Hopefully they try again because it would be neat if there were some new traditions that were born with the new stadium.
 

gophervet said:
Minnesota is the #3 hog producing state and quickly gaining ground on #2 North Carolina. I know Iowa natives are disgusting people, but just an FYI that there are ample pig and corn farmers in Minnesota too.
Click to expand...

Yes, but Minnesota is also a healthier state, and doesn't resemble or have sex with the hogs we own. :D


Wisconsin:
After every victory, the people of Wisconsin has sex with a dead animals as a thank you gift to the football gods.
 

Gopher07 said:
No offense to Adam (as I'm sure he picked this stuff off school websites) but when's the last time you heard Ski-U-Mah chanted at any Gopher sporting event?
Click to expand...

I believe this list came from a blog post from about a year ago from Adam, where he asked fans from each school to send in information about what their traditions were. So it came from Gopher fans.
 

I went to a Nebraska football game this year and the gameday experience is amazing down there. Here are a few of their traditions.

1. The tunnel walk
Music pumping as cameras follow the team down the tunnel and into the stadium.

2. Standing the entire game.
This will upset many a Gopher fan as all I hear is complaining about people not sitting down.

3. Releasing red balloons when Nebraska scores its first points.
I wasn't too sure about this one, but when Nebraska scored its first TD, it was pretty amazing to watch tens of thousands of balloons going up.

4. Everybody wears red.....Everybody.
 

CrocShots said:
Yes, but Minnesota is also a healthier state, and doesn't resemble or have sex with the hogs we own. :D


Wisconsin:
After every victory, the people of Wisconsin has sex with a dead animals as a thank you gift to the football gods.
Click to expand...

Oh gosh, you don't think you're being funny, do you?
 

The band/cheerleaders really need to encourage using Ski U Mah at the end of the "band cheers" (ie Band Cheer 7) instead of "Go Big Gold" which is so generic and stupid. I never understood why the band/cheerleaders/Ath Dept don't embrace Ski-U-Mah more, it is our Boomer Sooner or Hook 'em Horns. It should be the catch phrase that everyone associates with the school.
 


They did the "Ski-U-Mah" chant way too slow with the flags. It was like, "Ski................................................U....................................................Mah......................"
They needed to start slow and then get faster and faster, but there was always at least a long pause between each part. It would be a great chant if they would do it again, correctly.
 

Ski U Master said:
The band/cheerleaders really need to encourage using Ski U Mah at the end of the "band cheers" (ie Band Cheer 7) instead of "Go Big Gold" which is so generic and stupid. I never understood why the band/cheerleaders/Ath Dept don't embrace Ski-U-Mah more, it is our Boomer Sooner or Hook 'em Horns. It should be the catch phrase that everyone associates with the school.
Click to expand...

Totally agree and have thought this for some time. This is the one thing we have that is different than everybody else and can't be copied. I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of the phrase, but that's partially because they way they use it is so lame. They have feebly tried to get the Ski U Mah chant going at every basketball and football game recently (not just in the songs), but have failed. It could and should become the greeting when Gopher fans see each other.

This really wouldn't be too hard to do if they wanted to. I think they have to work with the students to get this going at games more, and their marketing area simply has to start using it as part of every communication. Of course, that's only if anybody important were to agree. ;)
 

CrocShots said:
Yes, but Minnesota is also a healthier state, and doesn't resemble or have sex with the hogs we own. :D


Wisconsin:
After every victory, the people of Wisconsin has sex with a dead animals as a thank you gift to the football gods.
Click to expand...

All of that is true. Wisconsin people are disgusting.
 

FarmGopher said:
They did the "Ski-U-Mah" chant way too slow with the flags. It was like, "Ski................................................U....................................................Mah......................"
They needed to start slow and then get faster and faster, but there was always at least a long pause between each part. It would be a great chant if they would do it again, correctly.
Click to expand...

They'd still need to publicize it better and not have the Jamie lead it over the PA for it to truly catch on IMO. Personally, I think it works better at a steady and repetitive pace b/c it's easier for the random fan to follow along with. You speed it up and you'll get people messing it up just like they do with the clapping towards the end of the Rouser. Agree that the pauses were too long at times though.
 

I also think it didn't take off because they only ever did it at the beginning of the game and this was when they were still having trouble getting people into the building on time. It's hard to get a chant going when half of the building is empty.
 

Let the guy in the Russian Hat who sits home side upper deck be the Ski-U Mah leader. I remember watching him scream that going up the tunnel one game- obviously made an impression for me to remember it. Used to see him do the chant in our tailgate lot every once in a while- seemed to be pretty fired up. His tailgate group seems like they can drink, that's for sure. Attractive ladies there too. :D
 

Weddings and Steak Frys said:
Let the guy in the Russian Hat who sits home side upper deck be the Ski-U Mah leader. I remember watching him scream that going up the tunnel one game- obviously made an impression for me to remember it. Used to see him do the chant in our tailgate lot every once in a while- seemed to be pretty fired up. His tailgate group seems like they can drink, that's for sure. Attractive ladies there too. :D
Click to expand...

LOL. I think you might have met the guy who has the other 4 seats in my row in 246. We call him Ski-U-Mah guy because he yells it ALL...THE...TIME at the top of his lungs. Sometimes there is a reason, other times it is just because. If I didn't know better I'd say he has Tourette's and that is his tick. He is usually obnoxiously drunk and making a scene in front of his kids. Towards the end of the season last year he had the amazing ability to be missing for the first part of the game yet he always managed to appear right after the Gophers made the game interesting. As soon as things would sour on the field, out he would go never to be seen again that day. I'm pretty sure he was listening to the game in the lot and felt we were only worthy of hearing his obnoxious blather when the Gophers had a chance to win.
 

Maybe after every interview coach Kill could say the phrase. I bet it would catch on.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom