Random observations on oskie

Sun Jan 17 02:19:38 UTC 2010

In thirty-five years at UT, I never encountered this term.  I used to read
the student paper every day, too, looking for weird words.

Deduce what you will.

JL

On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 9:12 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Random observations on oskie
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Feel free to use or discard...
>
> In light of USC/Tennessee football coaching turnover, "General" Bob
> Neyland's Seven Maxims briefly came back into the national focus. One of
> them is "Ball, *oskie*, cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang
> tackle...for this is the winning edge." Apparently, it is a common
> source of puzzlement.
>
> http://bit.ly/8bsR54
> >
> > Enough with the middlemen. It's time to take the question to the very
> > top. Enter John Bunting, a man who has spent his entire life in
> > football. He coached for three different NFL teams and was a defensive
> > coach for his entire coaching career before arriving at North
> > Carolina. This was a man who would know oskie.
> >
> > Or maybe not.
> >
> > "It's an interception term," he said with a smile. "I don't use it. I
> > hate it. I didn't invent it and I don't know what it means and I don't
> > know where it came from. I have been called upon to use it as a
> > player. If you find an Ohio State player, they might be able to tell
> > you. It goes all the way back to Woody Hayes."
> >
> > Not to quibble, Coach, but it apparently goes back even further than
> > that. According to http://www.oskie.com (no, seriously, it really does
> > exist), the term goes all the way back to General Bob Neyland at
> > Tennessee. In fact, it was one of his seven maxims of football. "Ball,
> > oskie, cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle...for this
> > is the winning edge," according to Neyland. He was unavailable for
> > further comment since he is, technically, dead.
> >
>
> One recent youth coaching manual states simply,
>
> > Oskie Oskie is word that some coaches and players use to announce that
> > they have just gotten an interception.
>
> Athletic Journal (1950--no issue identified) has a similar description.
>
> > It is well to have the man making the interception call "oskie" when
> > he catches the ball.
>
> UD has the same explanation, although it also has an unrelated entry for
> "Oskie Woskie".
>
> But searching GB actually reveals another turn of the century usage--in
> university and fraternity cheers.
>
> (1906) <Note that a number of other chants on that page contain
> references to graduating class by year, including "nineteen-two" and
> "nineteen-seven".>
> http://bit.ly/93cCZq
> > Oskie! Wow! Wow!
> > Wiskie! Wee! Wee!
> > Oli-muck-e-i!
> > K. U. Medic-ki!
>
> http://bit.ly/5mhpO0
> (1917)
> > Come back and renew old acquaintances--
> > Come back and join us with big "Oskie Wow-Wow."
> > We will guarantee you a lively time.--
> > Homecoming invitation sent out by University of Oregon.
>
> http://bit.ly/8Eflcd
> (1908)
> > Then [Kappa=Delta] almost raised the roof by the "Oskie-woy-woy" yell
> > of Illinois.
>
> http://bit.ly/79GbCV
> (1919)
> > And "Chet" Cleveland tried to give an Oskie-Wow-Wow for Illinois all
> > alone, and I had to help him out, although I was at the other end of
> > the room.
>
> http://bit.ly/7RrW5n
> 1919
> > ...traditions that will make chills play tag up and down a student's
> > spinal column when he hears an Oregon "Oskie," that will encourage a
> > seasoned first year man to fight for a green cap which he once
> > considered unsightly.
>
> http://bit.ly/8tXuHJ
> 1928
> > You fellows from the Oskie-Wow-Wow and from the hicks and the sticks —
> > you fellows from the little towns.
>
> http://bit.ly/4Dxg2E
> 1921
> > With an Oskie Wow, Wow, Illinois," and many a Rah, Rah, Rah, for
> > Georgia, V. M. I., Norwich, Michigan, and Massachusetts Aggie, 234
> > students shouted their farewell to Fort Ethan Allen on July 21.
>
> There is a reference to "oskie-wowow" on p. 60 of Newsweek that is only
> identified as vol. 16, 1940.
>
> Another is in 1958 Values in culture and classroom: a study in the
> sociology of the school, By H. Otto Dahlke (p. 205--snippet only)
> http://bit.ly/7ISmkh
> > For the present, therefore, the mass entertainment pattern with all
> > its implications will remain. Oskie Wow Wow— Skinnie Wow Wow Rah, rah,
> ...
>
> All other hits are on proper names or simply misidentified names (except
> one early reference that actually reads "oxide" in the text).
>
> VS-)
>
> PS: US Army Captain Robert Neiland (1892-1962) coached Tennessee from
> 1926 to 1952 with some interruptions--including during WWII, when he was
> promoted to Brigadier General before returning to Tennessee. His
> graduated from West Point in 1916 amd later got an engineering degree
> from MIT.
>
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