Princeton: Rebel Yell used in football?

[Becky Morgan]

In the November-December 2006 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, on page 50, there is an article about the history of football. (I copied down the full cite, but left my purse out in the car. Reading stuff in the emergency room tends to lead to mental lapses.) The author claims the first known cheerleaders were used at a November 1869 game between Rutgers and Princeton and that Princeton, as a favorite college for Southern aristocracy, used the rebel yell to threaten the other team. The author claimed the players found themselves short of breath after rendering the yell, so the Rutgers rematch featured "shouters" on the sidelines.

Is anyone familiar with current Princeton football traditions, and is it at all possible that the rebel yell has survived in disguise?

[RJSamp]

Re: Princeton: Rebel Yell used in football?

Cheers come and go over time......the 'story' makes you wonder about why other schools with Southern Aristocracy attendees aren't using the Rebel Yell as well......although the idea of Brooke Shields giving a Rebel Yell has a certain appeal.

There's a song/cheer book cited here that might be a source for your answer:

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2004/11/10/sports/11380.shtml

" In 1922, two Princeton alumni, Frank D. Halsey '12 and A.C.M. Azoy, Jr. '14 published the book Goal Line which detailed many of the early songs and cheers."

"Crash through that line of Blue
And send the backs around the end!
Fight! Fight for every yard!
Princeton's honor to defend
(rah rah rah!)
Roar, Tiger! Sis boom bah!
And locomotives by the score!
We will fight with a vim that is dead sure to win
For Old Nassau!"

Thus the band sang out , performing Princeton's primary fight song, the Princeton Cannon Song.

The history of songs at Princeton is a long one, dating back to the beginning of this century.

One of the earliest non-player specific songs is the Battle Hymn of the Bowl, in honor of Princeton's 13-6 victory at Yale on Nov. 10, 1919.

"Now Glory to the Lord of Hosts, for whom all glories are!
And glory to those agile youths whose fame have gone afar!
Now let there be the merry sound of music and of cheers,
Albeit Prohibitions come and we're done out of beers,
And thou, New Haven-on-the-sound, proud city of the Yales
Again let gloom enshroud thy walls and loudly rise thy wails."
__________________________________________________ _______________
Time to send another check to Boston University for my Freshman Daughter.... Go Terriers!

[hiplainsyank]

Re: Princeton: Rebel Yell used in football?

One reason the rebel yell might not have been used in southern states?

A couple speculations. First, how soon did football get going in the south? Because of the general economic and social downturn after the war, was football even widely played yet in the former Confederacy? And second, everyone played "local" teams compared to today, so the Rebel yell would have been a cultural part of everyone's experience and thus would not have prompted the fear and/or antagonistic instincts that presumably (if the account is true) the Princeton students would have aroused on all the northern schools they played. (Does this make sense? It's late on a Sunday that has been very busy in church...:confused_)

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Princeton: Rebel Yell used in football?

I was surprised that Princeton seemed to have so many Southern (and evidently Confederate) students only four years after the war. The idea of the yell not being a big deal in the South itself makes sense.

Now to find out whether anyone recorded the early cheering. Its sort of like cosmic echoes of the Big Bang even when no ear alive heard the original explosion!

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Princeton: Rebel Yell used in football?

Several years back on "The Rebel Yell" thread someone came up with a Confederate Veteran who was recorded doing "The Rebel Yell". Ok, now this thread...

Have any of you ever been to a Texas A & M game, and heard the Corp of Cadets?...well they (The Recorded Confederate Veteran and A&M Whoop) sound pretty much the same to me.

So, I would bet the Rebel Yell sounds like the yell of the Agies of A&M.

[MuleyGil]

Re: Princeton: Rebel Yell used in football?

In the Deep South, the oldest rivalry is Auburn v. Georgia, first played in 1892.

[BigRonFH]

Re: Princeton: Rebel Yell used in football?

Question:
Was the Notre Dame mascot originally a private in the 69th NY? lol

Ron Hopkins
Co. D, 13th US Inf

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Princeton: Rebel Yell used in football?

I wonder if it would be possible to have ONE Aggie do the cheer, then compare that to the lone old Rebel? There's a digitally multiplied version of him out there on the Net as well, perhaps suitable for comparison against the Aggie cheering section.

The question of the exact nature of the Rebel yell may be unanswerable, but it's certainly intriguing.

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Princeton: Rebel Yell used in football?

I still believe it sounded either like the Texas Aggie or the Celtic War Whoop...either way, yell at the top of your lungs and CHARGE.