Tag Archives: Sports

The night-night celebration

Text:

The night-night celebration is a basketball celebration popularized by Golden State Warriors star, Stephen Curry. It occurs specifically during a “clutch moment”, usually when a player hits a three pointer during the final minutes of a close, competitive game. The player clasps their hands together and leans his head on his hands to act like he is going to bed, essentially mocking the other team that they should just go home and go to sleep, as his shot has put the game and opponents to sleep.

Context:

The informant is a 20 year old USC sophomore studying chemical engineering. He grew up in Sunnyvale, California, and is a lifelong fan of the Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry. This celebration came up during our intramural basketbll game, when the informant hit a three pointer and did this gesture at the opposing team’s bench, who had been jeering all game from the sidelines. When asked about this celebration later on, the informant said that he saw his favorite player Stephen Curry doing this celebration during the 2022 playoffs, and thought the it was badass that the message of the celebration was telling the opposing team to just give up and accept their fate.

Analysis:

At its surface, it may be difficult to see the significance behind a simple celebration from a pro athlete. However, when considering this celebration’s virality during its first performance and the cult following Stephen Curry has, my informant and many others using this same gesture during their own competitions show how folklore performance isn’t limited to specific setting, but can be done authentically in any situation as long as it comes from the same folk group. On that note, beyond its surface purpose of mocking the opponent, this folkloric gesture also functions as a gesture of admiration for Stephen Curry, which is a trait only shared by the folk group of Stephen Curry fans. Hence, the celebration can also function as a marker for one’s membership in this group.

Pre-game ritual

TEXT

Interviewer: “All right, before we start, do you mind quickly introducing yourself?”

MC: “Yes, my name is ANONYMOUS, I’m a first year at USC studying bio”

Interviewer: “So what are some things you wish on to bring you good or bad luck?”

MC: “So growing up, I was raised a Catholic, so I would go to church pretty much every Sunday. I went through all the Catholic rituals, basically. I got like, the steps of becoming a true Catholic, like getting baptized, getting reconciliation, confirmation, all that. And basically, so that just brought me closer to Jesus. So, I would, before like, I was a big sports guy, so before every soccer game, basketball game, anything I would always send a quick prayer, just wishing God to look over me, my teammates, keep us, like, safe from injury, and help us just play a good game. I wasn’t, like, delusional in thinking, like, he could just make us win. I would just hope I could help us play our best, basically. And then others situations where I just, like, either whether it’s good times, bad times, I always like to send a quick prayer to God, like, just asking him to watch over me, my family, and just pray for good health.”

“And I feel like good luck stems from religion from being a good person. So I think I believe in karma, and like, if you do well, if you do good by others, good things will come to you, and vice versa. So, I don’t know, I’m probably not the most religious person in the world, like, I can’t tell you all the facts about the Bible and all that. I still have that faith, and I just think that faith in God is what defines the good and luck or bad luck. Because if you don’t believe it, of course it’s not gonna happen, you know what I’m saying?”

Interviewer: “Okay, so don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but could you go more in-depth on what the purpose of this is for you then? You mentioned that you know doing this act of praying won’t bring automatic divine intervention that guarantees success, but it also feels like based on the last part of your answer where you mention karma and other things you’re subconsciously hoping for some kind of supernatural effect from praying, which seems a bit contradictory to me.”

MC: “Yeah, totally. I don’t think it’s that divine interference. Like I said, everything that happens here, it’s like constituted by us, because we’re living, we’re doing it. But I believe that reassurance, that, like, that faith that you have, that he’s with you and he’s guiding you and he’s helping you, and he’s giving you the strength to keep pushing on. I just think that motivates me personally to, strive for success and even more. Like I don’t believe me sending a prayer to him saying, ‘Oh, please let me get a good grade on this exam.’ If I don’t spend the time studying and stuff, it’s not gonna happen, you know? I totally believe it’s like that second man on your shoulder just giving you words of advice, towards of wisdom, and just watching you over you.”

CONTEXT

My informant shared this story to me during a class discussion centered around good/bad luck omens we believed in. My informant is a freshman male student at USC studying biology. Based on the conversation, it seems that he uses this folklore as a source of reassurance before an important competition to bring him good luck.

ANALYSIS

As an individual who grew up around sports, the ritual the informant talked about was very familiar with me, as I personally saw similar rituals for athletes across both amateur and professional levels. This shows the multiplicity of folklore, where variations of such performances and gestures can be seen. At its surface, while the informant specified his religious affiliation with the Roman Catholic branch within Christianity, I believe this ritual could be considered one under the large folk group of individuals that believe in any type of religion. With that being said, what I mainly interpreted from our conversation was that this ritual expressed mostly personal values. The informant’s answer to my follow-up question and his explanation of the concept of having free-will suggests to me that his ritual doesn’t serve as a request for some level of supernatural help, but as a reminder to keep himself grounded and thankful for a higher being that allowed him to play in a particular sports game or explore other competitive interests. Thus, beyond this personal value this praying ritual holds for my informant, I also believe it illustrates the variety of spectrums that could come from this same ritual. Praying before an important match or event is something shared by millions of religious individuals, and while some may have a similar mindset as the informant, there’s likely millions that believe in the divine power religion holds and supernatural effects praying could have. Thus, I think this conversation was also a valuable learning opportunity to see that even within folk religion and groups that may practice similar practices, the actual belief or logic behind can be varying.

Pregame Faith Wrist Tape

Age: 21

Text
“A superstition or tradition that has been a part of my life for a while now is before football games, I tape up my wrists and I write GGM on my left wrist. GGM as my mantra saying God got me and I know that whatever happens on the field, God got me and it’s a part of his plan so that helps me kind of destress before the game and it’s been a powerful thing in my life.”

Context
LS has developed his own pre game tradition that connects his faith and his sport of football. He has always worn wristbands and wrist tape for games, but since the later years of high school he started writing GGM as he became more involved with Christianity. LS says that many athletes, both on his team and professionals, will write notes of their faith on their equipment, and it’s a very strong way to stay connected before and during the game and keep calm.

Analysis
LS’s ritual is a great intersection between material culture, rituals, and religious folklore. Writing his mantra of “God got me” is a way for LS to honor his faith and belief in God before every game, as well as managing his uncertainty and feeling a sense of ownership over the unknown events that will happen in the game. This ritual ties into his place in the Christian and athlete folk groups, as many athletes have superstitions around material culture like clothing, and writing notes of faith is a way to channel good luck into special objects/clothing (Sims, Stephens). It’s also somewhat of a magic superstition for LS, as he believes that the combination of honoring God and writing the mantra and his wrist tape will lead to more positive outcomes in the game.

The Bride of the Ball Field

Age: 35

Location: Kailua Kona, Hawai’i

Text:

“So we’re getting back super late from an away game, like close to midnight. The field’s totally dark, no lights on anywhere, just the bus headlights. We all start unloading our gear, and I noticed the lady. At first I just stared out because I couldn’t tell what it was.

I tell everyone, ‘Do you guys see that?’ And we all look, and there’s this lady in a long white dress just walking the warning track. Slow, like she’s searching for something. At first we thought she was just some random person who wandered in, but the longer we watched her, the weirder it felt. She never looked at us, never changed her pace, never reacted at all.

Her dress was dragging behind her like it was floating, even though there was no wind. And she just kept making this slow loop around the field, head kind of tilted like she was looking for someone.

We all started unpacking the bus way faster. Like throwing bags out, not even caring where they landed because everyone just wanted to get to their cars and get out of there. By the time we left, she was still out there walking the field, not noticing us at all.

I thought about it for a while that night and recalled the dress looking like a wedding dress. Although I wasn’t sure, I thought that maybe she was searching for her husband.”

Context:

This ghost story was told to the informant by their baseball coach. The coach claimed to have encountered the apparition more than once over the years. He described the woman as a deserted bride who wanders the baseball field at night searching for the man who abandoned her on their wedding day

Analysis:

This legend blends personal testimony with the classic “white lady” ghost motif. The baseball field, normally filled with noise, players, and daylight becomes creepy when empty and dark. This creates the perfect setting for a spectral figure whose emotional trauma keeps her stuck to the space.

The lady’s slow pacing reveals her restlessness, mirroring her search for her husband who left her. The idea that she is only present at night reinforces her connection to liminality: she inhabits the darkness, the in-between spaces, and vanishes as the sun comes up.

Bring Em Out – Ritual

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Ritual Dance/Entrance: Bring Em Out

Context: “‘Bring em out’ is an entrance tradition I do with my high school volleyball team. It starts with all of the girls lining up in pairs, captains in the front, then seniors, then juniors, etcetera. We line up by the main doorway that leads to the main part of the gym, and they play the song “Bring Em Out” by T.I. plays over the speakers in the gym. When it gets to a certain part of the song, every pair runs out one after another, jumping up and slapping the arch of the doorway as they pass it. The JV and frosh teams are lined up on the endline and sideline as we enter, so we high five them along the way and then high five our partner over the net before running a few drills and high fiving them on the other side of the net. It’s a really fun tradition for every home game, it serves the same purpose as like a wrestling entrance so the crowd gets hyped up and all the players ready to go.”

Analysis: This is the second of two pre-volleyball game rituals given to me by my informant, and I think it shows just how prevalent folklore is in places and situations where you wouldn’t expect it. I don’t think a single person on the planet thinks of folklore when someone mentions sports and vice versa. And yet it is featured so prominently, in ways that don’t jump out as being folklore but can absolutely be considered as such after learning about the ritualistic and symbolic significance behind it. I found the comparison to wrestling entrances especially funny, but it absolutely holds true. The entrance is an extremely important part of a performance, and what is sports if not an athletic performance? The whole process of “Bring Em Out” can be compared to some of the ritualistic practices of theatre troupes, which most would agree fall under the category of folklore. I had always seen things like this and enjoyed them without ever analyzing through the lens of folklore, and I think doing so can reveal a lot.