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The War Chant is modern take on the traditional 'Chant de Guerre' or a marching or battle song such as the Marseillaise.
The All Blacks Rugby team famously perform a war Haka derived from Maori tradition.
People at schools and colleges adopt a similar tradition, such as may associated with the Florida State University, specifically its Florida State Seminoles 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 University 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 tomahawk 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 Braves baseball player, and former Seminoles football and baseball player, Deion Sanders to Atlanta where it was adopted and renamed the "tomahawk chop." Next, the NFL football team, the Kansas City Chiefs 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 Chargers. The music would later be used by local grocery chain Price Chopper 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 Illinois 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 FC'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.
Controversy
Other uses
- The war chant was used in a scene near the end of Mel Brooks's 1993 comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights. (It was simply called "the chop" in the film.)
- The war chant was sampled in Nelly's 2003 hit song "Shake Ya Tailfeather," which was featured on the Bad Boys II Soundtrack.
- The war chant is used by fans of the Turkish soccer team Trabzonspor, Galatasaray S.K. as well as fans of A-League club Sydney FC.
- The war chant is used by fans of the Taiwanese professional baseball team Brother Elephants of CPBL league.
- The war chant is used as a running gag in the movie Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach.
External links
- History of the war chant on the official Florida State University Athletics web page
- Galatasaray fans doing the war chant on YouTube
- Football is war : Polynesian tribal chants - article on the use and history of war chants in sports with various videoclips
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