Ateneo Blue Eagles - Sports Traditions

Sports Traditions

The Ateneo has rich traditions in things that are related to sports. Most of these traditions have been started by the sports-loving American Jesuits after they took over the administration of Ateneo in 1912. However, the sports related traditions that the American Jesuits introduced in the Ateneo were not original ideas but copied from American schools. Team mascot, pep band, organized cheering, cheerleaders and bonfires were all American sports innovations.

Cheering

• The Blue Babble Battalion

Ateneo was the first school to field an organized cheering squad in the Philippines. It all began when Ateneo's Fr. Austin Dowd, S.J. sponsored organized cheering as a means to inspire its athletes. Cheering by Ateneo students during games existed as early as 1914 when Ateneo started to participate in intercollegiate sports. But it was more of an individual or a small group in the Ateneo gallery shouting spontaneous encouragements to the Blue and White team or heckling the opponents. There were no cheerleaders to lead the whole Ateneo gallery to cheer in unison with prepared cheers so as to produce loud and solid-volume cheerings.

Inspired by how American colleges made use of organized cheering to bolster their teams' morale, Fr. Dowd introduced this organized cheering form to the Philippines in the years before the NCAA began. He recruited the first three cheerleaders of Ateneo, namely, Leon Ma. "Rah-jah" Guerrero HS '31 AB '35, "Crown Prince" Elpediforo Cuna HS '30 AB '34 and Jumpin' Jess Paredes HS '31 AB '35. During those early years, there were only three cheerleaders each NCAA season and they were fondly called the "Princes of Personality". The name Blue Babble Battalion came much later. There is no official record in Ateneo history when this name was introduced. Ateneo alumni old-timers only recall that this name was already in use in the 1950s. However, cheerleader Jesse Paredes, HS '54 AB '58 (son of one of the pioneer cheerleaders of Ateneo, Jess Paredes), clarified that "the Blue Babble Battalion was the Ateneo gallery, not the cheerleaders. That is why it is a battalion". In the 1940s up to the 1980s, The Ateneo gallery that is called the Blue Babble Battalion referred to the Ateneo spectators in the bleachers section of the coliseum or gym because almost all of the Ateneo gallery was seated there. It was composed mostly of high school students, some Jesuit scholastics and faculty. All of the cheerleaders and the pep band were also there. According to the alumni of the 1950s, one of the reasons they watched from the bleachers section was that they were given a 50% discount if they bought their bleachers tickets for NCAA games at the school cashier's office. They paid only fifty centavos for a one Peso ticket. This preference for the bleachers section changed when the UAAP games started to be held regularly at the Araneta Coliseum in the 2000s. Ateneo students watched the games from both the bleachers and upper box sections of the coliseum, resulting in cheerleaders being thinly spread over a wider area. The Jesuits and faculty deserted totally the bleachers section and watched the games from the lower sections of the coliseum. This reference to the Ateneo gallery as the Blue Babble Battalion was lost over time. Alumni old-timers point to the demographic changes in the Ateneo gallery as one of the causes for this loss. The once solid Ateneo gallery in the bleachers is now dispersed and even mixed with the crowd of the opposing school.

• The Sixth Man

The name Blue Babble Battalion would be resurrected later but as the name of a student organization. The Ateneo cheerleaders, cheerdancers, cheerlifters and pep band grouped themselves together under the name Blue Babble Battalion. With the loss of this name to the cheerleaders, the Ateneo community started to call the Ateneo gallery as the Sixth Man of the game. Sports articles published by the school and Guidon, the official student newspaper of Ateneo, showed that up to the 1980s there were references to the Ateneo gallery as the Blue Babble Battalion, and the name Sixth Man started to appear in sports articles as early as the year 2000.

Ateneo Cheers, Yells and Songs
Ateneo's cheering tradition consists of cheers, yells and songs that imbibed the Ateneo spirit. They added much to the clapping of hands and stomping of feet by inspiring and willing the school varsity teams to victory time and again. There are no records of when and who wrote the Ateneo's cheers and yells. The cheers are said to have been inspired by Roman traditions. Contrary to popular belief, the cheers themselves have no literal meaning such as Fabilioh and Halikinu, which some mistake for Greek or Latin words. They are just letters put together and have a rhythmic sound. The yells of Ateneo are one to three words of encouragement such as "Fight" and "Get that ball". The Ateneo songs are the opposite of the cheers. They are all intelligible and the composers of some of them are known. After the eagle was officially chosen as the school's mascot, the fighting song, "Blue Eagle - The King" was composed by Raul Manglapus (AB '39) in the summer of 1939. The marching song, "Cheer, cheer and Go!" was composed by Lamberto Avellana (AB '37). Some songs like "Hail! Ateneo Hail!" and the Ateneo Cadet Corps March were adopted and modified from cheering songs of American Jesuit schools, such as Fordham. The music were borrowed and new lyrics were written or the proper names were just changed. A cheerbook, titled On Wings Of Blue was published in the 1930s and reprinted in the 1950s and 1987. This first edition contains all the songs, cheers and notes compiled from since the cheering tradition began before the foundation of the NCAA. This small blue booklet featured as well, interesting tidbits about things Atenean such as the colors, shield, motto and the mascot of the school. The 1998 edition has gone through some revisions, including the addition of the Song for Mary.

Ateneo Cheer Rallies
No article has been found so far to establish when Ateneo's historic tradition of cheer rallies started. Alumni old-timers can only remember that they participated in cheer rallies in the 1950s. Cheer rallies were not continuously held. There were periods of several years when the tradition was dormant. The cheer rallies of yesteryears and of today are a lot different in terms of participants and purpose. In the former, only high school students participated while the whole University and alumni participated in the latter. The cheer rallies of earlier years were held to teach and practice the cheers. Today's cheer rallies' main purpose is as a send-off to all the University varsity athletes as they embark on their journey to the battlefield of sports.

• Cheer Rallies of Yesteryears

In the 1950s and 1960s, cheer rallies were held in early June in preparation for the opening of the NCAA season. The cheer rallies were held in the high school covered courts and attended only by the high school students. After the flag ceremony on a Monday morning, classes were suspended for one period to hold the cheer rally which was led by the college cheerleaders. The high school student population was divided into eight groups. Each group was composed of a mixture of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students. Each group would yell the same cheer. There were eight pennants each with an image of different bird species attached to poles. The group that cheered the loudest got the pennant with the image of the eagle, and the group with the lowest noise volume was given the pennant with the image of the crow. Seldom used cheers were practised and the juniors and seniors basketball varsity teams were paraded on the stage. The team captain (King Eagle) of the seniors basketball team gave a short pep talk to the gathered students, promising the school to do their best to win the championship and asking the students to support the team by attending the games.

• Cheer Rallies of Today

Today's cheer rallies are big production events. They have a festive atmosphere. There are musical performances by Atenean music bands and video presentations of notable moments of previous season's campaign. Demonstration squads from different sports like volleyball, taekwondo and judo show their techniques on the hardwood. The Blue Babble Battalion is next as the cheerleders lead the crowd in cheering while the cheerdancers perform their cheering moves. The last part of the event is a basketball game between the current Blue Eagle team and an alumni Blue Eagle team. The top officials of the University are in attendance. The university president, vice-presidents and Directors of various school units are present. They are joined by the alumni. It is a University-wide affair. The crowd is composed of students from the grade school, high school and college. All the varsity athletes from said school departments are paraded before the crowd. The affair is ended with an inspirational talk by the university president who wishes the athletes success in their respective campaigns. Finally the crowd sings the Song for Mary. This event is formally called the Big Blue Eagle Cheer Rally.

The Blue Bonfire
Just as the Romans welcomed home their victorious army with a big celebration, so does the Ateneo community welcome home their victorious athletes with a celebratory bonfire. Whenever the men's or women's varsity basketball team win a UAAP championship, a bonfire is held in October. This traditional celebration fetes not only the Blue Eagles and the Lady Eagles, but also all the other varsity teams that won championships during the UAAP season. Students, alumni, family members and friends of Ateneans, as well as die-hard fans attend the event to cheer their favorite athletes and to have their picture taken with them in front of the bonfire. They also ask the players to autograph their Ateneo shirt, ball, slam book, magazine featuring their favorite player or other belongings. All the players and coaches are formally presented to the crowd by asking them to go up the stage where some of them give short talks. The program emcees ask questions from the team which answers the crowd are interested to hear. There are many food booths to choose from and local bands to entertain.

This bonfire tradition dates back to 1932 or possibly even earlier when the Blue Eagles won their first NCAA championship in 1928. The 1932 bonfire was held in the Luneta Park. The celebratory bonfire is the culmination of the school's first semester sports season which started earlier in July with a cheer rally.