Wahoos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Wahoo (disambiguation).
Wahoos, or Hoos for short, is an unofficial nickname for sports teams of the University of Virginia, officially referred to as the Cavaliers.
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[edit] Origins
The nickname is a back-formation from the school's yell, "wah-hoo-wah."
Official University of Virginia sports documents explain that Washington and Lee baseball fans first called U.Va. players "a bunch of rowdy Wahoos," and used the "Wahoowa" yell as a form of derision during the in-state baseball rivalry in the 1890s, presumably after hearing them yell or sing "wah-hoo-wah." The term "Wahoos" caught on around the University and was commonly in use by the 1940s. "'Hoos" became the more accepted nickname throughout Grounds in student publications. In recent years, the Hoos nickname has become a nickname used by students and recent alumni of the University, and it is also commonly used in the media in reference to U.Va. sports teams.
The yell was invented as an Indian yell for Dartmouth College by Dartmouth student Daniel Rollins in 1878. Corks & Curls, the University of Virginia annual, regularly printed lists of the yells and colors of the various colleges; in 1888 it included Dartmouth's school yell, a part of which was the phrase "wah-hoo-wah." University of Virginia students soon incorporated the phrase "wah-hoo-wah" into their own, longer school yell, and individual U.Va. fraternities also adopted it and modified it. (It was common for "student culture" to travel: the University of Illinois also adopted "wah-hoo-wah," and the tune of the Yale "Boola Boola", for example, became the basis of the "Boomer-Sooner" song of the University of Oklahoma.) (Dartmouth students, meanwhile, largely stopped using the Indian yell during the 1980s along with the accompanying Indian mascots, symbols, and nickname.)
The yell was already in use by the time Natalie Floyd Otey performed at the Levy Opera House in Charlottesville on January 30, 1893. She sang a song specifically about the town and University titled "Wah-Hoo-Wah" that began, "Oh, Charlottesville, illustrious name,/ The home of Jefferson you claim;/ The lap of learning, font of fame—" and was set to the tune of "Ta-rara-boom-de-ay," with the catchy chorus sung as "Wah-hoo-wah you-vee-ay." Otey's song was popular enough with students that Corks & Curls printed it in 1894.
(Legend, however, states that Otey sang "Where'er You Are, There Shall My Love Be". The student audience decided to join in the refrain of the song and by the end of the play the crowd turned the words "Where'er You Are" into "Wah Hoo Wah." Both events might have occurred, since an enthusiastic student audience might reasonably be presumed to sing along with Otey after hearing her sing "Wah-Hoo-Wah.")
[edit] The Good Ole Song
Eventually, students produced a song that centered around the yell "wah-hoo-wah," sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. The first verse is as follows: "That good old song of Wah-hoo-wah, / We’ll sing it o’er and o’er, / It cheers our hearts and warms our blood / To hear them shout and roar/ We come from old Vir-gin-i-a/ Where all is bright and gay/ Let's all join hands and give a yell/ For the dear old U-V-A. " Singing of the verse is followed by the cheer: "Wah-hoo-wah! Wah-hoo-wah! Uni-V! Vir-gin-i-a! Hoo-rah-ray! Hoo-rah-ray! Ray! Ray! U-V-A!" (While the foregoing lyrics are described here as the first verse, the second verse is seldom heard, and its lyrics are not widely known.) The "Good Ole Song," as it is known (although it refers to the good old song), is U.Va.'s unofficial alma mater.
[edit] Urban Legends
- "The Good Ole Song" is often mistakenly referred to as the University's fight song, but the actual fight song is a different piece known as the "Cavalier Song" or the "Cav Song."[1]
- Other implausible but popular theories of the origin of the nickname at U.Va. involve the wahoo fish, supposedly known for drinking copious amounts of water without drowning in order to puff itself up for a fight.
