Embracing the tradition of Yale spirit

Philosopher George Pierson said that, "Yale is at once a tradition, a company of scholars, a society of friends." Now, after three hundred years of growth and change, traditions both silly and serious help create this inspiring community of scholars and friends.

In Yorkside Pizza, a restaurant frequented by Yale students, photographs recording decades of participation in various athletic teams cover the walls. While enjoying a slice students can see pictures of the huge crowds that have been attracted to the annual football game between Yale and Harvard. Commonly known as "The Game," this football match takes place the weekend before Thanksgiving recess. In years when the game is held at Harvard, many Yale undergraduates migrate to Cambridge to show their Yale spirit. The Yale Precision Marching Band appears at half time in order to carry humor and music onto the field. Despite what the name would imply, the marching band has traditionally been a scatter band that engages in a variety of antics while also producing some music. When Yale wins, students rush the field in celebration.

Photos lining the walls of Mory's similarly show the captains of the men's football team from the 1920s and the women's field hockey team since the '70s. Mory's is an essential part of Yale tradition. This small, private restaurant serves both undergraduates and alumni. On Thursday nights the guests enjoy entertainment provided by one of Yale's fourteen official a capella singing groups. Besides the music sung by the a cappella groups, Mory's also has its own traditional song. When groups of students go to Mory's for a toasting session, the revelers may sing the Mory's song while passing the cup around to everyone seated around the table, always keeping it off the table. When the cup is finished, the last person flips the cup and places it upside down on a napkin. If a ring of the champagne-based drink happens to fall on the napkin, the drinker must buy the next cup.

A capella at Yale has a long history which the current groups continue. A capella began with the Wiffenpoofs in 1909. This highly celebrated group, whose members are drawn from males in the senior class, tours the world each year. Whim 'n Rhythm, established in 1981, is the female equivalent of the Wiffenpoofs. Twelve other groups of various musical styles also perform regularly; some all male, others all female, and some mixed. Tap Night is one of the most exciting nights of the year for a cappella members. During one night in the fall, all of the groups gather after the difficult rush process and dart around old campus where almost all freshman live, to the rooms of prospective members "tapping" them into their group.

Music in general has a very strong presence and deep roots at Yale. In the Glee Club room of Hendrie Hall, the pictures which line the walls showing the Glee Club as far back as the late nineteenth century, convey a sense of the longevity of the organization. The number of large and small musical organizations and the huge number of ready and eager musicians reflects this long lived presence of music at Yale. Both the Yale Band and Yale Precision Marching Band have been playing for over a century. The Yale Symphony Orchestra in addition to regular concerts, presents the annual Halloween Show which, like The Game, is one of the few events each year that attracts a large portion of the undergraduate population. At the show, the symphony plays a soundtrack to a silent film for an audience of over 3,000 in Woolsey Hall.

Art and architecture has also always played a very important role at Yale. The museums at Yale, including the Yale University Art Gallery, The British Art Museum, and the Peabody Museum, contain significant collections. A trip to one of these museums is well worth the time. Also, the various architectural styles found on campus mirror many different traditions, some of which actually pre-date Yale. While Yale's residential college system imitates that of Oxford and Cambridge, these English Universities, dating back to medieval England, also provided architectural models for many of the residential college buildings constructed at Yale in the 1930s.

Some traditions leave students wondering about their origins. For reasons unknown, Jonathan Edwards college "sux." For decades the phrase "JE sux" has served as a rallying cheer and motto for J.E. students. Various superstitions also defy explanation. Walking through the Branford gate on High Street any time besides graduation day supposedly destroys the chances of one's graduation!

Intercollege rivalries persist on and off of the intramural sports fields where the various colleges compete. Each year the twelve colleges compete in three seasons of intramural sports for the coveted Tyng Cup. The wide array of intramural sports includes soccer, tennis, basketball, inner tube water polo, bowling, and softball. In recent years Saybrook has often dominated, winning the Tyng cup several times. The infamous Tang Cup, on the other hand, represents a slightly less athletic yet very practiced tradition of intercollege rivalry. Since the post World War II era, teams of students from each residential college have competed each year in timed beer-drinking matches which usually leave participants rather dazed and confused.

Often rivalries seem to develop due to certain college's proximity to one another. Neighbors Silliman and Timothy Dwight traditionally engage in snowball fights, particularly in celebration of the first snowfall. The students of one college invade the other's courtyard, and the battle begins. Other colleges perpetuate rivalries through pranks such as stealing a college's flag.

Until the '90s, intercollege competition also included the bladderball. Some traditions like bladderball, however, eventually fall by the wayside. Until the tradition died because of the hazardous chaos it presented, Yalies competed annually in this game which involved a riotous mass of students on old campus keeping an enormous bladderball (from six to eight feet in diameter) bouncing around above everyone's heads trying to get it to an assigned goal or one's residential college.

Remembrances of the past particularly permeate daily life in some colleges such as Jonathan Edwards. The large, decorative spider's web which hangs on the wall of Jonathan Edward's dining hall harkens back to the famous religious figure for whom the college is named. The spider humorously alludes to the spider imagery within the fire and brimstone sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" written by Jonathan Edwards. In late spring this college also hosts the annual Spider Ball that includes classical waltzes and swing music.

While some rituals inexplicably fade over the course of several decades, the setting of new traditions continues. Prior to the 1970s the men of Yale (women did not graduate from Yale until the early 70s) enjoyed clay pipes provided by the University along with a small amount of tobacco during Commencement weekend's Senior Class Day when all seniors, family, and friends gather on Old Campus to welcome prominent speakers. Today, however, the Class Day tradition of wearing creative hats and and other forms of head gear creates a certain hilarity which contrasts with the seriousness of the weekend as a whole.

To commemorate the admission of women to Yale beginning in 1969, the Women's Table was installed on Cross Campus. Maya Lin, SY '81, ARC '86, architect of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C., designed the "Wo-men's Table," a monument that re-cords the number of women attending the university for every year since Yale's inception. The monument is both a water fountain and bench that has come to serve as a traditional meeting place for students in the center of campus. The table, which is covered by a quarter of an inch of water, also attracts students who, in a light- hearted, adventurous mood, slide across it, either clothed or unclothed.

Needless to say, the tradition at Yale is to have and create traditions, though the exact nature of those traditions certainly varies over time. Traditional rituals and events morph or fade away and only a few remain for decades and centuries. But even so, within this age-old community of friends and scholars, new traditions are always in the making. Photo by Tyler Mertes.

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