  Whence Wah Hoo Wah? Some of you who read this might be wondering how or why I chose this title for my blog.
Ok, some of you aren't at all. But I wanted to be absolutely clear. Some of you out there just know it as some verbotten phrase, the reasons for which are vague but unquestioned. For some well-researched background info check this out urlLink here . Basically, some well-intentioned students created "wah hoo wah!
" as a chant to foster school spirit back in the late 1800s. Administrators in the 1970s decided it was "offensive" and so it is now pretty darn divisive. For those of you unfamiliar with Hanover, in some circles the old College cheer is tantamount to yelling "N*gger! " Something is terribly wrong when made-up nonsense words gain this much value as a result of their detractors' wishes and with no clear logic to back it up.
Yes, Dartmouth failed its mission with regard to Indians during its first century. The irony is that detractors of Dartmouth's Indian mascot and other traditions would have objected to what Dartmouth was supposed to teach Indians in the first place: namely to give them a Western education and to Christinize them. Added to this is that several publications (from Sports Illustrated to the Dartmouth Review) have done polling research of Native American populations and most are either apathetic about Indian Mascots or support them.
The differences don't even vary when viewed as seperate populations that live on reservations and those who do not. It is a super-vocal minority and their non-native liberal allies who make all the noise on college campuses and in front of urlLink Fedex Field . What cooks my goose even more is that many of this folks aren't sportsfans. For example, they don't really understand my relationship and feelings to the symbol of two red socks hanging side by side.
There isn't a hierchy between me and the socks. They don't serve me and they certainly aren't supposed to represent or affect the self-esteem of socks everywhere. Those socks represent a team I follow as passionately as any nationalist of the 20th century. They mean I hate New York City and its team. They mean I live and die by everygame they play. I love my socks in red. So, fast forward to this century and school spirit towards the teams on the field is often apathetic, football crowds don't fill Memorial Field and a team has to be making a lot of noise with wins to get noticed.
Dartmouth has such a proud athletic tradition and its students are essentially fair-weather fans. Big Green? Gimme a break. No one gets behind a color, albeit a bigger one than average. My blog is named Wah Hoo Wah because those words mean to me a stab at the eye of intellectual sloth, political censorship, and of course love for my dear old Dartmouth; of days when its teams challenged for national championships (think football games against Army and Notre Dame, baseball, basketball and hockey) and there was pride in our institution for more than what it does for your career or academic reputation.
Come stand up men and shout for Dartmouth. Cheer when the team in green appears. For naught avails the strength of Harvard, When they hear our mighty cheer: WAH HOO WAH HOO WAH! Fight, fight, fight for Dartmouth, And tear on down the field. Touchdown, Touchdown, Dartmouth, For the old Crimson's strength must yield. 
