In the early days (fall '72, our first season) not much happened before the game started. We (captains) would flip a coin with the opposing captains to decide who pulled, with the loser picking the side of the field. Games were played with two timed halfs, & I think whoever pulled to start would receive at the start of the second half. One of the early team members, Gary Smith ('76) was dabbling in eastern religions, & thought it would be a good idea to meditate before the games, so we got in the habit of sitting in a circle & chanting OM for a minute or two.

Then, a breakthrough. In the spring of '73 Andy Aronson ('74?) attended a Tufts basketball game & was inspired by one of the cheerleader cheers. The cheer was a leader/response cheer/dance that went like this: leader: Have you got the spirit? group: yeah, yeah leader: Let's hear it in your feet, you go uh, uh, uh uh uh group: uh, uh, uh uh uh (while kicking feet in time to the 'uh') leader: Let's hear it in your arms, you go uh, uh, uh uh uh and so on, going through as many parts of the body as desirable, usually ending with 'all over, frantically wiggling everything available. The whole thing was done in a high falsetto, imitation the (female) cheerleaders. You had to be there, I guess...

By the spring of '74 the ritual had evolved. We started with a quiet meditation, with someone (Gary S. or Steve Goldstein ('76) usually) leading, and after a minute or two or five (on our good days) we would transition into the spirit cheer, usually led by Andy. Other teams would either watch in disbelief (Rutgers, RPI, MIT etc) or join in (Hampshire, UNH). After particularly enjoyable games the whole thing would be repeated after the game was over, sometimes with the other team joining in (again, Hampshire & UNH were the most likely to participate).