Cheering Tradition
The Ateneo de Manila was rather successful in athletics even before the NCAA began. To help cheer the Ateneo squad on, the Jesuits decided that the Ateneo ought to have some sort of organization in its cheering. The Ateneo then introduced organized cheering to the country by fielding the first-ever cheering squad in the Philippines, which is now known as the Blue Babble Battalion.
The Ateneo was a proud pioneer, arguing about how the Ateneo’s brand of cheering is both unique and rooted in classical antiquity. In the 1959 Ateneo Aegis (the college yearbook), Art Borjal argues:
"It all started about 2,000 years ago along the Via Appia in Rome. The deafening cheers of Roman citizens, lined along the way, thundered in the sky as the returning victorious warriors passed by…The type of cheering that the Ateneo introduced was, in a way, quite different from that of the Romans. When the warriors came home in defeat, the citizens shouted in derision and screamed for the soldiers’ blood. To the Atenean, victory and defeat do not matter much. To cheer for a losing team that had fought fairly and well is as noble, if not nobler, than cheering for a victorious squad."
The words of some of the cheers seem incomprehensible or derived from an exotic language. Loud, rapid yells of "Fabilioh" and "Halikinu" to intimidate and confuse the enemy gallery. Meanwhile, fighting songs help inspire the team to "roll up a victory".
A cheerbook, On Wings Of Blue, which contains cheers and notes compiled from since the cheering tradition began before NCAA, was published in the 1930s, and has gone through major revisions, including the addition of the Song for Mary. Some of the cheers, including "Give them the axe", have been discontinued; others, such as "Go Ateneo" and the "Eight-Beat Chant", were added in the last two decades.
Then-student and cheerleader, Raul Manglapus, composed the fighting song Blue Eagle, The King in the summer of 1938 after the school had officially chosen the eagle as its mascot. It was first sung in front of the Jesuit fathers on June 22, 1939, and made its NCAA debut the same year.
Read more about this topic: Culture And Traditions Of The Ateneo De Manila
Famous quotes containing the words cheering and/or tradition:
“As I stand over the insect crawling amid the pine needles on the forest floor, and endeavoring to conceal itself from my sight, and ask myself why it will cherish those humble thoughts, and hide its head from me who might, perhaps, be its benefactor, and impart to its race some cheering information, I am reminded of the greater Benefactor and Intelligence that stands over me the human insect.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As soon as tradition has come to be recognized as tradition, it is dead.”
—Allan Bloom (1930–1992)