Rule #12 Revisited.

If you're getting a feeling of déjà vu, it's because I ran this entry, in almost exactly this form, just before the Rutgers Scarlet Knights' first football game of 2009 against the Cincinnati Bearcats. I've made a couple of minor edits and Point 5 is brand-new for the game against the Pittsburgh Panthers tomorrow night. It just seemed important to reiterate these rules of Rutgers Stadium behavior before the second real contest of the year. The "fans" have been entirely too quiet during the three intervening games between Cincy and Pitt. Tomorrow's forecast (39 and rain at this point according to weather.com) is not conducive to normal high spirits or high attendance, so those of us who are there are going to have to stretch our vocal cords to fill any gaps in the 55,000 seats.

We have many fewer rules than the Freshmen of the Class of 1923 had in the Rutgers College Handbook Volume XXVI, 1919-1920 , but rule number 12 from that little book should be considered as true and as enforceable now as it was then (you can see the full Freshman Regulations with Beat Visitor's 2009 annotations by clicking here):

Rule 12. Failure to know the songs and yells before the
first football game will be detrimental to your health.

When you go to watch Rutgers beat Pitt (for the fifth year in a row), here are The Four Absolutely Necessary Songs and Yells at Rutgers Stadium:
1) R ... U ... R ... U ... etc. This one is idiot proof. If someone yells R at anytime on game day, you yell U. If you're on the bus from the parking lot at the RAC and someone yells R, you yell U (especially if there are fans with Pittsburgh's colors on board). If the students in the new South Endzone seats of Rutgers Stadium yell R and point in your direction, you -- and everybody else in the Stadium -- yell U as loudly a possible and point back at the student section. Like I said, idiot proof. But there are always some idiots who feel they are above yelling at a football game (they should reminded of Rule #12). If you and some of your leather-lunged friends are feeling ambitious, you can yell R yourself and start a chant in the parking lot or on a refreshment line or while walking into the mens' room. The line of fellow Scarlet Knights at the urinals with their backs to you are under an obligation to reply.
2) First Down! Touchdown! Go RU! After every Rutgers first down, you will hear the familiar voice of Joe Nolan proclaim over the loudspeakers : "And THAT is a Rutgers FIRST DOWN!" Your duty as a fan is to scream that along with him and point emphatically in the direction the Knights are traveling when you get to the words "first down." The band will immediately start to play a fanfare (a tune that will become very familiar with repetition as the Scarlet Knights march up and down the field at will). After the first repetition of the fanfare, you yell HEY. The second repetition will be in a higher key, you yell HEY at the end. The third, still higher, repetition of the theme will be followed by HEY, First Down! Touchdown! Go RU!. If you're in one of those sections where your neighbors like to sit quietly, and they give you a look, you can give them a look back, or make copies of Rule #12 to hand out in your section.
3) Here's the reason we come to the games rather than sitting at home listening to the radio: R U rah rah! R U rah rah! / Hoo-rah Hoo-rah Rutgers rah! / Upstream Red Team / Red Team Upstream / Rah Rah Rutgers Rah! You'll get a chance to practice once with the band as they play "The Bells Must Ring" before the National Anthem before the game, and then you will chant it over and over again after every Rutgers touchdown or field goal (you can see it in action at the 2:19 mark in this video -- you will also hear where to add "Fight Fight Fight" in "The Bells Must Ring".)
4) On the Banks of the Old Raritan. You have no excuse not to sing along with your beautiful Alma Mater (the nation's best Alma Mater) at the beginning of the game with the band (and sometimes glee club) and at the end of the game with the team. Not only do you only need to know the first verse, but the words are usually projected on the scoreboard and zippers. If your neighbors don't sing, you know which rule they are violating. Also, note in the illustration up above that there is also a page for the Class of 1923 entitled "A Word to the Wise." Note the second piece of advice: "While 'On the Banks' is being sung all Rutgers men rise and uncover." In other words, don't sit down and put your cap on after the National Anthem, you have another song to sing (we'll assume that you already sang The Star-Spangled Banner with feeling and are in the mood to sing some more).
And FINALLY, and MOST IMPORTANTLY ...
5) Though not officially a "Song or Yell," Make As Much Noise As Possible Whenever Rutgers Is on Defense. There were people around me last week who didn't seem to know this basic rule of any football stadium. We won't have another home football game until November 12th against the USF Bulls, so plan on leaving tomorrow night's game with your vocal cords torn and bloodied. They have a month to recover.

Go Knights!

The Rolling R ... a new tradition for a new Rutgers Stadium?

Yesterday I wrote about the traditional Rutgers football cheers and back in June I suggested that the best way to celebrate the closing of the oval at Rutgers Stadium might be with a wave. Spectating purists -- those who like to enjoy baseball games with a scorecard and a pencil, or sit with their radio headphones and binoculars at football games -- see the wave as a travesty that ruins the true pure sports spectating experience (the same way that some at UConn see their Husky cheerleaders).

This wave occurred at Rutgers Stadium on September 1, 2008.

The real problem with waves is that nobody is very good at them. The crest of the wave approaches and no one knows what to say, except for the anoraks with the radios and reading material who are shouting "Quiet!" and "Down in Front!". The rest of us stand and throw our arms up in the air, but we sound like we are quoting Otto at an Octonion meeting: Whee! Yippee! Yeah! Lollipops'n'Twizzlers!

What if the only official accepted wave vocalization in R House were "R" (pronounced "ARRRRGH", like a pirate) drawn out in a long rolling wave around the Stadium. And it's no longer called "a wave" of course. It's now "The Rolling R" -- a new tradition in a new Rutgers Stadium.

Rule #12, or Training Camp for the Rest of Us

The players have been training hard for a while now but our training camp, as fans, is much easier. Your whole playbook fits into this one short blog post.
We have many fewer rules than the Freshmen of the Class of 1923 had in the Rutgers College Handbook Volume XXVI, 1919-1920 , but rule number 12 from that little book should be considered as true now as it was then (see the full Freshman Regulations with Beat Visitor's 2009 annotations by clicking here):

12. Failure to know the songs and yells before the
first football game will be detrimental to your health.

The first football game of the year against the Cincinnati Bearcats is less than two weeks away, and here are The Four Absolutely Necessary Songs and Yells at Rutgers Stadium:
1) R ... U ... R ... U ... etc. This one is idiot proof. If someone yells R at anytime on game day, you yell U. If you're on the bus from the parking lot at the RAC and someone yells R, you yell U (especially if there are fans with the opposing team's colors on board). If a handful of people on the opposite side of the Stadium yell R and point in your direction, you -- and all your neighbors -- yell U as loudly a possible. Like I said, idiot proof. But there are always some idiots who feel they are above yelling at a football game (they should reminded of Rule #12). If you and some of your leather-lunged friends are feeling ambitious, you can yell R yourself and start a chant in the parking lot or on a refreshment line or while walking into the mens' room. The line of fellow Scarlet Knights at the urinals with their backs to you are under an obligation to reply.
2) First Down! Touchdown! Go RU! After every Rutgers first down, you will hear the familiar voice of Joe Nolan proclaim over the loudspeakers : "And THAT is a Rutgers FIRST DOWN!" Your duty as a fan is to scream that along with him and point emphatically in the direction the Knights are traveling when you get to the words "first down." The band will immediately start to play a fanfare (a tune that will become very familiar with repetition as the Scarlet Knights march up and down the field at will). After the first repetition of the fanfare, you yell HEY. The second repetition will be in a higher key, you yell HEY at the end. The third, still higher, repetition of the theme will be followed by HEY, First Down! Touchdown! Go RU!. Like I said, you'll get a lot of practice in the first game. If you're in one of those sections where your neighbors like to sit quietly, and they give you a look, you can give them a look back, or make copies of Rule #12 to hand out in your section.
3) Here's the reason we come to the games rather than sitting at home listening to the radio: R U rah rah! R U rah rah! / Hoo-rah Hoo-rah Rutgers rah! / Upstream Red Team / Red Team Upstream / Rah Rah Rutgers Rah! Like the first down chant, this will become very familiar with repetition. You get a chance to practice once with the band as they play "The Bells Must Ring" before the National Anthem before the game, and then you will chant it over and over again after every Rutgers touchdown or field goal (you can see it in action at the 2:19 mark in this video -- you will also hear where to add "Fight Fight Fight" in "The Bells Must Ring".)
4) On the Banks of the Old Raritan. You have no excuse not to sing along with your beautiful Alma Mater (the nation's best Alma Mater) at the beginning of the game with the band (and sometimes glee club) and at the end of the game with the team. Not only do you only need to know the first verse, but the words are usually projected on the scoreboard and zippers. If your neighbors don't sing, you know which rule they are violating. Also, note in the illustration up above that there is also a page for the Class of 1923 entitled "A Word to the Wise." Note the second piece of advice: "While 'On the Banks' is being sung all Rutgers men rise and uncover." In other words, don't sit down and put your cap on after the National Anthem, you have another song to sing (we'll assume that you already sang The Star-Spangled Banner with feeling and are in the mood to sing some more).

Tomorrow's Fan Lesson: Something New for the New Stadium, "The Rolling R!"

Where Will the Children Play?!?

Not that I'm shopping for more season tickets for myself, but out of curiosity I checked the Rutgers ticket office today to see which sections have seats being offered for new season-ticket holders in the expanding Stadium. As you can see by the sections highlighted in red below, none are being offered from the new South Endzone sections 131-144, but they are being offered in the former student sections in the northwest corner (sections 110-115) and in some of the upper deck sideline sections.

Which brought up the question in my mind of where the students were going to be sitting and how it was going to affect the crowd dynamics in R House this fall. I found the confirmation of my fears here in the 2009-2010 RUTGERS FOOTBALL STUDENT TICKET POLICY that the students will be entering through the new South Endzone entrance and sitting far from me in sections 134-141. From my seats in section 123 I've often felt like we were the main recipients of the students' enthusiatic "R"s to which we replied with our feeble "U"s. We also were in the thick of the "Upstream Red Team" cheers after scores and "First Down Touchdown Go R U" cheers after first downs. Does losing the students mean that we also lost our proximity to the band and the cheerleaders?? If so, I hope that the new occupants of the northwest corner do their homework and learn all the cheers before September 7th. And while they're at it, they need to learn all the verses of "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" too.

Having the students filling one entire end of the Stadium could change the dynamics for the better, leading to calls and responses that involve the entire Stadium (including those people in the lower level between the twenty-yard lines who seem to think they should be able to sit during a Rutgers football game), but we'll see soon.