The
War Chant is modern take on the traditional 'Chant de Guerre' or a marching or battle song such as the Marseillaise.
The
All BlacksThe New Zealand national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, is the representative side of New Zealand in rugby union. Rugby union is regarded as the country's national sport...
Rugby team famously perform a war
HakaHaka is the traditional dance form of the Māori of New Zealand. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment.-History:...
derived from Maori tradition.
People at schools and colleges adopt a similar tradition, such as may associated with the
Florida State UniversityFlorida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
, specifically its
Florida State SeminolesThe Florida State Seminoles are the men's and women's sports teams of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Florida State participates in the NCAA's Division I . FSU joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1992 and competes in the Atlantic Division for sports split into divisional...
athletic teams.
Seminole fans began the tradition of continuing a band melody known as "Massacre" after the band had stopped playing during a home football game versus
Auburn UniversityAuburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, U.S. With more than 24,100 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 1, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts school...
on October 13, 1984.
The
War Chant is modern take on the traditional 'Chant de Guerre' or a marching or battle song such as the Marseillaise.
The
All BlacksThe New Zealand national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, is the representative side of New Zealand in rugby union. Rugby union is regarded as the country's national sport...
Rugby team famously perform a war
HakaHaka is the traditional dance form of the Māori of New Zealand. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment.-History:...
derived from Maori tradition.
People at schools and colleges adopt a similar tradition, such as may associated with the
Florida State UniversityFlorida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
, specifically its
Florida State SeminolesThe Florida State Seminoles are the men's and women's sports teams of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Florida State participates in the NCAA's Division I . FSU joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1992 and competes in the Atlantic Division for sports split into divisional...
athletic teams.
Seminole fans began the tradition of continuing a band melody known as "Massacre" after the band had stopped playing during a home football game versus
Auburn UniversityAuburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, U.S. With more than 24,100 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 1, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts school...
on October 13, 1984. The fans also started a gesture involving a repetitious bend of the arm at the elbow (initially following an FSU first down), playing on the referee's signal for a first down while also eventually being understood as symbolizing a
tomahawkA tomahawk is a type of axe native to North America, traditionally resembling a hatchet with a straight shaft. The name came into the English language in the 17th century as a transliteration of the Virginian Algonquian word....
swinging down. The gesture was embraced by fans as an integral part of the War Chant, and by the 1986 football season the war chant was one of the most widely recognized Seminole traditions.
The tradition followed
Atlanta BravesThe Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From to the present, the Braves have played in Turner Field....
baseball player, and former Seminoles
footballAmerican football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...
and
baseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond...
player,
Deion SandersDeion Luwynn Sanders is a former National Football League cornerback, Major League Baseball outfielder, and is currently an NFL Network commentator. He carries the nicknames "Prime Time" and "Neon Deion"....
to Atlanta where it was adopted and renamed the "
tomahawk chop." Next, the
NFLThe National Football League is the largest professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing its name to the National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of...
football team, the
Kansas City ChiefsThe Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
adopted it after hearing the Northwest Missouri State marching band perform the war chant while the Chiefs players were warming up for a game against the
San Diego ChargersThe San Diego Chargers are an American Professional Football team based in San Diego, California. They are currently members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . The club began play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League...
. The music would later be used by local grocery chain
Price ChopperPrice Chopper is a chain of supermarkets headquartered in Rotterdam, New York. The chain began operating as Central Markets in Schenectady, New York in 1933 and changed its name to Price Chopper in 1973. It is presently owned by the Golub Corporation and run by Lewis and Neil Golub...
as part of its "Chiefs 'n' Chopper" ad campaign, and fans would also chant the slogan during the song. In recent years, the Braves have played a clip of the Florida State Marching Chiefs' playing the chant song during games.
The
University of IllinoisThe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a public research university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the oldest and largest campus in the University of Illinois system....
also has a cheer called the "War Chant." However, Illinois' War Chant is different in that it does not involve the same gesture or melody used by Florida State and the Atlanta Braves. The Illini's version involves a faster paced version of the song with a slightly different melody, and clapping above one's head to every drum beat.
Sydney FCSydney FC, founded in 2004, is an Australian professional association football club based in Sydney and competes in Australia's premier competition, the A-League....
's The Cove also do "The Chop." It was started spontaneously during a match when the Cove drummer start the drum beat and fellow Cove members quickly caught on with the chant.
The "Tomahawk Chop" even made its way to Europe as it was frequently used by the Berlin Thunder before the demise of the NFL Europe league.
Other Uses
- The war chant was used in a scene near the end of Mel Brooks
Melvin "Mel" Kaminsky , better known by his stage name Mel Brooks, is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer, best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. Brooks is a member of the short list of entertainers with the distinction...
's 1993 comedy Robin Hood: Men in TightsRobin Hood: Men in Tights is a 1993 comedy of the story of Robin Hood. Produced and directed by Mel Brooks, the film stars Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, and Dave Chappelle...
(It was simply called "the chop" in the film).
- The war chant was also sampled in Nelly
Cornell Haynes, Jr. , better known by his stage name Nelly, is a rapper, singer, actor and entrepreneur. He has performed with the rap group St. Lunatics since 1993 and signed to Universal Records in 1999. Under Universal, Nelly made his solo debut in 2000 with Country Grammar, the title track of...
's 2003See also:* 2003 in music Record labels established in 2003-Events:* January - following an investigation by The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and London detectives, police raids in England and the Netherlands recover nearly 500 original Beatles studio tapes, recorded during...
hit song "Shake Ya Tailfeather"Shake Ya Tailfeather" is a single by the rappers Nelly, P. Diddy and Murphy Lee, released in 2003 from the Bad Boys II Soundtrack. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, giving Murphy Lee the first, Nelly the third and P. Diddy the fourth number one on this chart...
," which was featured on the Bad Boys II SoundtrackBad Boys II is the soundtrack to the 2003 action-comedy film Bad Boys II, released on July 15, 2003 through Bad Boy and Universal Records. The album peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 324,000 units in the first week, becoming one of few soundtracks to reach the position...
.
- The war chant is used by fans of the Turkish soccer team Trabzonspor
Trabzonspor is a Turkish football club, from the Black Sea port city of Trabzon playing in the Süper Lig.Trabzonspor was formed in 1967 by a merger of four local clubs. Many of the players from these constituent teams became part of the Trabzonspor side that succeeded in winning promotion to the...
, Galatasaray S.K. as well as fans of A-LeagueThe A-League is the premier Australasian domestic football competition. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia, it was founded in 2004 following the collapse of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005-06...
club Sydney FCSydney FC, founded in 2004, is an Australian professional association football club based in Sydney and competes in Australia's premier competition, the A-League....
.
- The war chant is used by fans of the Taiwanese professional baseball team Brother Elephants
The Brother Elephants are the most popular professional baseball team in Taiwan. It was originally established as an amateur team in 1984 by the Brother Hotel located in Taipei City, and later joined the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 1989...
of CPBL league.
- The "War Chant" is sometimes know as a "War Cry"
- The War chant is used as a running gag in the movie Balls Out - The Gary Houseman Story
External links