"When the Saints Go Marching In" is used by a number of teams in various sports. It may be used as the team's theme song or reserved for when they score. It may be used with the standard lyrics, specialized lyrics, or no lyrics at all.
When sung by a crowd, it is often started at a very slow tempo, around 70 beats per minute. The next verse is then dramatically sped up to somewhere around 140 beats per minute.
The following is a partial list of notable uses.
Famous quotes containing the words when the, saints, marching and/or sports:
“Kings were wont to honour philosophers; but if I had such I would honour them as angels that should have such purity in them that they would not seek when they are the second to be the first, and when they are third to be the second.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“All saints revile her, and all sober men
Ruled by the God Apollo’s golden mean—”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
“A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behaviour, attire, grace, learning and all their words aimeth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)