Quick Hits on Sports Chants: I Believe, Olé, and Iceland's Thunderclap

00:00:28 Speaker 1: Humans have been around for a while, and since the earliest days of our existence as a species, one universal tradition has remained relatively unchanged, and that is chanting. When you have a ton of people gathered together for an event, it's almost inevitable that they'll eventually start saying or speaking words in unison. The practice of Vedic chanting a ka reciting the ancient hymns of the Vedas, the most sacred and ancient scriptures of Hinduism, has been used to pass on that religious knowledge through hundreds of generations. The ancient Greeks were known for singing paeans before battles, calling on their gods for help, while the ancient Romans were known for their litany of marching songs to keep tempo and battle cries to inspire bravery. When looking through history, it's clear that religion and war have been the two most prolific producers of human chants. Medieval pilgrims sang hymns on their long journeys, and thousands of other religions used chants to worship, inspire, and pray. Likewise, thousands of military groups have adopted battle chants, mottos, and marching songs as part of their core identities. These chants or sounds have an almost mystical power to bind individuals together around a shared purpose or goal. Around the turn of the twentieth century, sports joined war and religion as one of the main creators of new chants, and while sports lag behind war and relige in terms of what's at stake, they also kind of combine aspects of the two. It's impossible to hear the way some people talk about sports teams without drawing similarities to religion. For some, their team is their religion, tuning in every week like a ritual and often on Sundays to watch them play. And when two teams play one another, especially in more physical sports, it's hard not to feel like it's a battle between two warring sides, just with jerseys instead of armor and javelins. All this to say, crowds of people love to chant things together because that in unison, yelling turns a group of a thousand individuals into one singular unit. It's the perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. So on today's Quick Hits episode, I'll be exploring the interesting origins behind some of sports most iconic crowd chants, ranging from a US Navy prep school to bullfighting rings in Spain. I'm willgatchel. This is sports dot MP three and let's get into it. In the world of sports, it's important to believe that you can win, and that's exactly the premise of the first chant we'll be covering. In nineteen ninety eight, a student from the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Annapolis, Maryland, named j Rodriguez was tasked with creating a chant that Splittoon would use during an upcoming basketball game against the United States Military Academy Preparatory School. His final creation was a work of genius. It was simple and easy to follow, yet oddly dynamic. Part of its effectiveness, without a doubt, is that you don't even need to know the chant to chant it. One person leads off and everyone else just repeats what that person says, and the whole time the chance power builds up until it peaks with the final line, I believe that we will win. A year after debuting the chant, Jay Rodriguez had graduated the prep school was now a full time student at the Naval Academy. It was there that he taught the chant to a classmate, Corey Strong, who was also a cheerleader for the school's football team, and that small choice would lead to massive changes. During the nineteen ninety nine Army Navy football game, Corey Strong started the chant in the fourth quarter and the four thousand student brigade of midshipmen joined in enthusiastically. Navy won the game nineteen to nine, although they would go three and thirty over the next three years, meaning there were not many opportunities to break out the chant. When the team finally improved in the two thousand and three season, Navy began producing T shirts with the phrase plastered on them, and the student section now breaks out the chant towards the end of every victory. Over the following years, other college teams also began adopting it, including the Utah State Aggis men's basketball team, and the student sections of San Diego State University and Harvard. In twenty eleven, Justin Brunken, co founder of the American Outlaws, which are a massive US soccer supporters group, heard the chant for the first time during a US game in Kansas City, and it quickly spread through the ranks of the country's soccer fanatics. Justin later described why it was so popular. Quote, it resonated with the crowds across the country and became synonymous with what we believe in end quote. Before long, it was the unofficial chant of the United States' national soccer teams, appearing in two commercials promoting the twenty fourteen FIFA World Cup and being slightly altered by US women's team forward Abby Wombach, who during the twenty fifteen Women's World Cup victory parade led the chant as I believe that we just won. Part of the chants staying power, in addition to a requiring almost zero prior non college, is how applicable it is to well, any team or group that's about to win. It doesn't specifically cater towards one sport, team, location, or even time period, which explains how it started out as a simple prep school basketball chant spread to hundreds of other teams across sports, and was even sampled in a twenty twenty Pit Bull song about COVID nineteen. If you're curious, No, the song isn't that good. And I say that as someone who appreciates the music of mister Worldwide. All Right, let's get on to chant number two. I don't speak Spanish, but I have indulged in my fair share of ole olay chance. The sound is almost universal. Even if you don't know what it means, you can understand that the people channing it are cheering something or someone on. In truth, olay is a Spanish interjection originally used to praise or cheer on bullfighters aka mattadors and flamenco dancers. Oftentimes, each successive move from a mattador or dancer would earn an olay, and another, and another and so on. The interjection has been used in various chants and songs throughout the nineteen hundreds, but it didn't become the world renowned chant it is today until the nineteen eighties. And that's all thanks to two Belgians, music producer Roland Verluven and singer grand Jojo also known as Jules Jean von Obergen apologies for that pronunciation. The two were asked to write a song celebrating Belgian's soccer team r SC Anderlecht becoming league champions in nineteen eighty five, and they did as instructed, recording a song called quote Anderlecht Champion end quote. In both French and Dutch versions, the song's chorus included the line lay alay, lay alay, we are the champions, We are the champions, the lay in this instance being the French A L l e z, not the Spanish ol e. With the FIFA World Cup set to take place in Mexico the following year, Grand Jojo was asked to create a Mariachi influenced version of the song in support of the Belgium national team, and he did just that, replacing the chorus with olay olay, olay olay with an ol e. This version of the song stuck, with various other slightly altered versions releasing over the next few years, including the most popular current iteration of the song, which is called olay olay olay, the name of the game, and was sung by a group called The Fans and produced by Roland ver Luvin, the same man who created the original Intellect Champion version with grand Jojo. Now, unlike I believe that we will win, this olay chant has more than one meaning. While it can be used as a celebratory chant, it's also used to mock opposing teams, which I guess is technically still celebration, but you know what I mean. In Europe, fans of the winning team will often yell olay sarcastically mocking the losing team after every single pass or shot attempt. And to give an idea of just how far reaching this olay chant has become, its spread from bullfighting and soccer to hockey arenas and rugby fields, becoming a popular chant for both the NHLs Montreal Canadians and and the Welsh rugby Union. And with that chant explained, we have one more to go, although it's technically more of a clap than a chant, sort of. In twenty sixteen, Iceland's population was around three hundred thirty five thousand, five hundred people and England's was approximately fifty five million, meaning that for every one person in Iceland, there were one hundred and sixty four in England. I bring this up to highlight just how shocking it was when Iceland's national soccer team knocked England's out of the round of sixteen during the twenty sixteen UWEFA European Championship. The unprecedented underdog victory earned massive headlines around the world, and all of this media attention allowed everyone to witness one of the best crowd chants in sports, the Iceland fans iconic thunderclap. You can't see it, but you can picture it. Thousands of fans with their hands raised straight in the air, clapping in unison and screaming huh, incrementally speeding up the claps until it reaches a deafening peak of intensity. The chant obviously went viral, with many calling it the Viking thunderclap and tons of fan bases from a variety of sports adopting their own versions of it. And while it seems like the entire chant had to have some sort of ancient Viking war ritual origin, the truth is actually a lot more tame. Only two years before their incredible Uro twenty sixteen run, the chant wasn't used at all in Iceland. In twenty fourteen, an Iceland soccer team whose name I dare not attempt to pronounce, played against a Scottish team called Motherwell FC. The Scottish fans ultimately broke out a thunderclap chant at some point during the match, and it was apparently so cool that the onlooking Icelanders decided to adopt it as their own. From there, it soon made its way to the Iceland national team, who then shared it with the rest of the world thanks to the Euros. And just to add another twist, MOTHERWELLFC doesn't officially claim to be the original creator of the chant. Its true origin, according to anything I could find, remains somewhat of a mystery, which is somewhat fitting because the chant is, to some extent just really fun to do, even if you're a fan of an opposing team. There have been several instances, in fact, where rival fans have joined Icelandic soccer team fans enacting the thunderclap, and you can't really blame them. Plus, on the topic of fitting, one American sports team has adopted the chant as their official battlecry, and that is, if you haven't guessed yet, the Minnesota Vikings, and that folks does it. For today's quick Hits episode of Sports Dot MP three, thank you so much for listening. Once again, I'm Will Gatchel and I hope you learned something new. As always, I'll be back next week with a new episode. Peace after known to say them Dago