College Sports Traditions: Picking Up Butch, Silent Night, and Hundreds of Others

Pop culture meets reference in this list-like book that aims to showcase school spirit and athletic camaraderie through college sport traditions of all kinds. According to the authors, all colleges and universities were invited to submit a variety of sports traditions. The categories include traditions before and after a game, after a score, annual ones, those involving bands and music, plus a myriad compilation of trivia. There are mascots, rivalries, venues, cheers, plus a chapter entitled "Traditions Probably Not University Sanctioned." The way the book is organized encourages a flip-and-choose style of reading; otherwise, the all-inclusive content in each chapter gets repetitive%E2%80%94particularly in the grouping of "entrance" traditions (how teams enter the field) where routines range from shaking hands with the media to doing push-ups. Other chapters offer a more interesting and sometimes surprising variety%E2%80%94we learn that at University of Washington basketball games, fans sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and at Murray State University, "local grandmothers" send cakes to players on their birthdays. Rivalries include a traveling trophy of wooden shoes at Hope College and Kalamazoo College%E2%80%94in the case of a tie game; each coach takes home one shoe. And in the category of firsts, Youngstown State University was the first to use penalty flags and the University of Minnesota is said to have invented cheerleading. Beck and sportswriter Wilkinson offer a fun catalog of traditions that will likely spark nostalgia or school spirit among readers. (Dec.)