In reply to: when did that start? posted by golyadkin
So why "salute" them when they aren't there
With that reasoning, I guess they shouldn't even play it
Maybe they tried before and no one stuck around - I'd understand. Just wanted to see if anyone had any insight on why it happens for some sports and not others
Was as a salute to the student section in the stands. The players being students is irrelevant to this discussion.
Football and Men's Basketball has a lot of students in the stands. Women's Basketball doesn't.
That makes sense, although I still think it would be a nice gesture. I know it's not exactly a chicken/egg thing - singing the alma mater won't bring students. And I'm not sure why students don't support the team, I went to women's games at the very infancy of the program when women's basketball hadn't developed into the exciting game it is today
Again, it wasn't supposed to be a criticism - it was genuine question
... a much smaller percentage of the fans at the women's games are students and alumni compared to football and men's basketball. That could be part of the reason the "tradition" hasn't made its way to women's bball.
...but "tradition" is a hard term to define sometimes...
That's been going on forever, a true tradition.
I've always heard that it debuted at Rockne's funeral at ND. However, when I decided to do a search for it, while some pages list that as true, some official ND sites list it as debuting at halftime of the 1930 stadium dedication game and one other source said that it debuted at the October 7, 1931 premiere of Universal Pictures’ The Spirit of Notre Dame.