Agree and therefore maybe we should go back to sitting on our hands between the 3rd and 4th Quarters. A lot of "fans" seem to do that really well.
Anti -"hands in the air" petition
- Thread starter phatcat
- Start date
It's awful. And contrived. Can't we sacrifice a virgin instead? Are there any virgins at Northwestern?
I went to our game at Minnesota last year, and they did a bit on the scoreboard where they played Circle of Life, showed this scene from Lion King, and then went around the crowd showing different fans holding their babies/young children up in the same way.
It was absolutely hilarious and arguably better than anything I've ever seen on a Northwestern scoreboard.
Even though it goes on way too long, the hands in the air is okay. And what you all say about NU fans being mopes is only partly true. When the Wildcats make a play, the fans are into it! HOWEVER, WHAT REALLY NEEDS TO BE ELIMINATED, AND SOON are those absolutely stupid games they play during time outs. What a HUGE distraction from the game and an insult to the players, IMO. Childish at best, and boring. The score is tied, Ryan is ELECTRIC, we're about to score and a time-out is called. What happens?? They send out a couple dorks and a screechy bimbo to dunk pillows in a Coke can or something like that. Totally deflates the game atmosphere. JEEEEZUS. That's what needs to go.
CHELSEA. DAGGER.
The problem with Hands Up in the Air is that it's forced - not a natural tune that you wanna move your whole body to (like Wisconsin's Jump Around)...had not connection to NU before they tried to impose it as the Q4 song...in fact, I don't think I had ever heard it in my life before they manufactured it into NU gameday lore.
Chelsea Dagger ("the Blackhawks song," for those who may not know it by name) on the other hand, has Chicago heritage...yes, of course it's connected to hockey and the Hawks...god forbid we hitch our wagon to that franchise. Anytime it plays at Ryan Field you always see people moving around to it, because it's familiar to Chicagoans...and it had its defining moment at Ryan Field when we played Wisconsin in 2009 - as I often mention when this topic comes up, the game was tight, bowl positioning was at stake...with a few minutes left and the game on the line, this song started playing and all our players started dancing around to it, as did our fans. Meanwhile, as we were celebrating like we had already won the game (which we certainly had not...yet), the Badgers sideline was stone cold silent, like someone had died. I remember watching the broadcast afterward and the sideline reporter made a big deal about how different the two sides were. And then we won - still one of my all-time favorite NU football memories.
EDIT: AAAnnd according to our own Nate Williams, this was one of the songs recommended by the Leadership Council at the time. Come on. This is a no-brainer.
The problem with Hands Up in the Air is that it's forced - not a natural tune that you wanna move your whole body to (like Wisconsin's Jump Around)...had not connection to NU before they tried to impose it as the Q4 song...in fact, I don't think I had ever heard it in my life before they manufactured it into NU gameday lore.
Chelsea Dagger ("the Blackhawks song," for those who may not know it by name) on the other hand, has Chicago heritage...yes, of course it's connected to hockey and the Hawks...god forbid we hitch our wagon to that franchise. Anytime it plays at Ryan Field you always see people moving around to it, because it's familiar to Chicagoans...and it had its defining moment at Ryan Field when we played Wisconsin in 2009 - as I often mention when this topic comes up, the game was tight, bowl positioning was at stake...with a few minutes left and the game on the line, this song started playing and all our players started dancing around to it, as did our fans. Meanwhile, as we were celebrating like we had already won the game (which we certainly had not...yet), the Badgers sideline was stone cold silent, like someone had died. I remember watching the broadcast afterward and the sideline reporter made a big deal about how different the two sides were. And then we won - still one of my all-time favorite NU football memories.
EDIT: AAAnnd according to our own Nate Williams, this was one of the songs recommended by the Leadership Council at the time. Come on. This is a no-brainer.
Ah yes, that venerable Chicago traditional song. Written in 2006, stolen from Celtic FC and first used by the Blackhawks in 2009 (to really poor reception)....then lo-and-behold...the team wins something and now we LOVE this song.
Just win and everything will be just OK.
Don't know if it was you, but we saw, probably around Section 130, a couple of kids being lifted up for each point by their parents. My 5 year old grand daughter immediately wanted to do it, so we naturally obliged. She was genuinely excited about doing that, as opposed to Hands in the Air which bored her after about 15 seconds.
Shakes
The question of how many types of cheese can you name were posed to two Cats. I forget who answered first but he named I believe 7 types with the final being Cheese Whizz.
He in my opinion was trumped by Brad North who stoically proclaimed " there is only one cheese American " and let the remaining dozen seconds tick away.
I'm 21 and growing up going to games "hands up in the air" has always made me feel very awkward and embarrassed. Fans simply don't look cool doing it and very few look happy to be doing it, the effort and enthusiasm is mostly half you-know-what. We don't need a game day tradition to be forced, if the team does well and fan support grows then traditions will form organically from fans being innovative.
How do you propose replacing the check Coca-Cola writes to the athletic department to sponsor the game?
What do you recommend they do during commercial breaks? Some idiot trying to catch "punts," marching a waving team on the field,
and playing a stupid song are literally the best entertainment value out there. I mean we could get Metallica, the newly reunited Guns and roses, or Wiz Kalifa to play a series of 2 minute concerts on top of walker terrace... But I think getting a huge check from coke for the game beats paying those guys a check
Yeah, that was pretty funny. I believe the first guy was Cam Dickerson. He did a good job, but North stole the show.
Speaking of shows, what was with that halftime show? Looked like 20+ squads of high school cheerleaders, with little to no practice at what they were trying to do. First, the music started while some of the girls were still streaming in from outside Walker Terrace. So they were out of sync from the start. And at the end, I think they were trying to spell "CATS", but it was a jumbled mess. The C was asymmetrical, the A was really a backward P, the T was decent, but the S was missing its top. Bless their hearts - they tried their best, but they needed more practice.
Seems like people mostly think it should be kept because kids like it. Maybe shorten it and move it to just after the team comes out on the field pregame. I'd rather see some highlights of dramatic wins from past seasons prior to the 4thQ. While we've suffered several improbable losses the last few years, if you go back 20 years it was improbable victories by the Cardiac Cats that was our closest thing to a naturally developed tradition. Now you can tack winning in South Bend 2014 onto the list.
Speaking of Cardiac Cats...
This season, during one of the timeouts, the PA guy talks about one of the signature "Cardiac Cats" moments from the past 20 years, and they show a photo from that game on the jumbotron. They've done the 54-51 game and the OSU OT game so far. But they don't show any video highlights! What's up with that? How hard could that be?
This season, during one of the timeouts, the PA guy talks about one of the signature "Cardiac Cats" moments from the past 20 years, and they show a photo from that game on the jumbotron. They've done the 54-51 game and the OSU OT game so far. But they don't show any video highlights! What's up with that? How hard could that be?
Where could we ever find a group of individual students that care about football and traditions and stuff... Hmmmm..... Maybe during the offseason you could survey the 100 kids on the football team. Also the band would pretty good too. They always come up with creative stuff.I don't see why they wouldn't just turn to a student survey or something to figure out an idea to use as a student-section-led "tradition."
Cue the comments about not enough students caring to make a survey useful.
Problem is that even if people like it for 2 years, we'll lose a game and it'll get associated with losing, or we'll get tired of it and call it a forced tradition. Bottom line is we're 2-0 and it appears like we've got a pretty good team. Let's stop caring about what silly things we do when ESPN is showing a commercial.
I got some alternate songs with things people can do in the stands that aren't jumping (because that's stolen from Wisconsin) or putting one's hands in the air:
Start this one at 1:10 the intro is long
Start this one at 1:10 the intro is long
Bring back the Block N Card section. Now that the students are on the east side, it would be highly visible to the TV world.
<<Bring back the Block N Card section. Now that the students are on the east side, it would be highly visible to the TV world.[/QUOTE]
Indeed that might be fun, but it's a lot of work to plan and maintain. It was my honor/dishonor to be in the Block N card-holding section the last time it appeared at Dyche Stadium, c. 1959. Don't remember who the opponents were that day, but word went around the section that at the end of our sequence (halftime?) everyone would throw their cards in the air. I remember a student leader down below waving and crying, "No, No" when the cards went flying above our heads. Unfortunately those swirling cards also came down -- on the same heads. How we escaped decapitation I don't know to this day. I didn't toss mine but was huddled over hoping to avoid beheading.
Indeed that might be fun, but it's a lot of work to plan and maintain. It was my honor/dishonor to be in the Block N card-holding section the last time it appeared at Dyche Stadium, c. 1959. Don't remember who the opponents were that day, but word went around the section that at the end of our sequence (halftime?) everyone would throw their cards in the air. I remember a student leader down below waving and crying, "No, No" when the cards went flying above our heads. Unfortunately those swirling cards also came down -- on the same heads. How we escaped decapitation I don't know to this day. I didn't toss mine but was huddled over hoping to avoid beheading.
