College sports fans have some great traditions that everybody knows, like throwing up the "Hook 'em horns" at Texas, and not going to games at Miami. But across America there are traditions at schools large and small that many people have never seen, or even heard of. Or, in the case of this weekend's Frozen Four, schools that people have never seen, or even heard of. Union College? Go... Dutch! No seriously, that's their mascot -- the Dutch.
With college sports winding down (CWS excluded -- that thing goes 'till Christmas), here're our top 25 fan traditions to tide you over until the Fall. And give you an early start planning your road trips...
University of New Hampshire
While some fans throw pucks, hats, or octopuses after the first home goal of every hockey game, the Wildcat faithful toss a dead fish onto the ice in front of the opposing goal.
Because stealing is second nature to anyone playing football at FSU, the Seminoles have made a tradition of plucking some sod from home teams' fields after big away victories, then planting it in a cemetery in Tallahassee so fans can visit.
While the Soviets had Red Square in which to showcase the strength of their military, America chose a much more depressing location to display ours -- Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium. Before kickoff of the annual Army-Navy game, Midshipman and Cadets would march on the field in full uniform. Fortunately, both the Soviets and the Vet are gone, but the tradition still lives on at Lincoln Financial Field.
The intensity of this chant, where each word of the sentence "I Believe That We Will Win" is added as the chant goes on, is one of the coolest in college basketball. Down the road at BYU they've got a similar "I Believe" chant, but means something totally different.
You know how to mess with someone from Seattle, other than bringing up your love for the Thunder? Tell them they didn't invent the 12th man. That honor belongs to the students of Texas A&M, who remain standing for the entire game in solidarity with the players on the sideline.
You know that feeling at a house party when House of Pain's "Jump Around" comes on, and you immediately clench up expecting to get knocked over by some dude who's taking the song a little too literally? Multiply that by 90,000. And then throw in brats.
Gator fans world-wide will extend their arms and clamp them together like a gator's mouth at sporting events, but also upon meeting other fans in airports, in business meetings, at shopping mall fast food courts, and pretty much anywhere else they see one of these people.
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer Chant
At the beginning and end of their football games, the Crimson Tide faithful yell "Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, Give 'em Hell Alabama!" Because in the South, that rhymes.
Because when you're the third-most successful kid in the family, you've gotta make sure EVERYONE knows when you do something good, Wake students cover their entire quad in toilet paper after every football and basketball win. Duke and UNC still don't notice.
But no, Auburn, toilet papering part of your campus after big wins won't make you a Top 25 academic school too. That said, the Iron Bowl's still one of 10 sporting pilgrimages every dude needs to make.
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