Drop the chant! Drop the chant!

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Posted: Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 at 11:08 pm | Last Updated: Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
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When a player on the Oakland University men’s basketball team commits a foul, the offended player goes to the line to shoot free throws.

As fans of the team, we’re always against any foul called on Oakland. But a greater offense occurs when the opposing player prepares to shoot and the Grizz Gang student section begins its foul chant:

“Poop your pants! Poop your pants!”

To be fair, all such cheers are futile, as they’re unlikely to truly distract the shooter. We would argue that complete silence would create the most nerve-wracking environment for anyone who’s trying to concentrate.

We painfully endured the cheer throughout the regular season — especially when President Gary Russi made a guest appearance in the student section.

We grimaced when it was audible while Oakland played on television during last week’s Summit League Tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D.

It’s time to retire this ridiculous reprise.

There is plenty of positive attention being cast OU’s way right now. That’s apparent in the media flurry that has ensued as the NCAA March Madness tournament begins. In the last few days alone, the school has been the subject of numerous stories in the Detroit Free Press, including one about the team’s new shoes (Dear Nike: Could we get a few pairs, too?).

We’re proud to be a popular upset pick against No. 4 seed Texas. Multiple sports analysts have touted the capability of the strength and depth of this year’s men’s basketball team.

ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb, Jay Bilas of CBS Sports, bracketologist Joe Lunardi and ESPN writer Andy Katz have all either spoken or written about the possibility of an OU upset over the Longhorns.

As Oakland takes the national stage, let’s not give people the impression we’re still amused by bathroom humor.

The “poop your pants” chant was already the subject of ridicule from various media during the Summit League Tournament. Fans of other Summit League schools openly mocked the Oakland faithful for their childish chant.

When the national media talks about Oakland, the conversation should continue to be about the Grizzlies being a popular upset pick, not a team known for an upsetting cheer.

We should mention that we love virtually everything else the Grizz Gang does. Their dedication and enthusiasm, home and away, is unmatched. And many of the Gang’s other cheers — “Winning team, losing team” is our favorite — are great.

We simply ask that we present ourselves as college students, not preschoolers.

With only three March Madness appearances to date, Oakland is still the new kid on the block. We’ll face an uphill battle in establishing a solid reputation if we’re known for being the school with the soiled shout.

Let this editorial be the official death notice of the vile charity stripe cheer, for now and forever.

Again, we welcome silence as the killer of the other team’s concentration, but the Grizz Gang is free to institute a new chant of its choosing.

They have a 17-hour bus trip to come up with one, after all.

Keep it classy, Grizzlies.

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  • Joe Saputo

    These chants are what makes college sports so different from professional sports. It brings the campus community together to fight a rival school. The chants that OU has is extremely mild from those of other colleges. For example the University of Michigan hockey team has a chant when an opposing player heads into the penalty box: “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH (until the player steps in the box). SEE YA! CHUMP, DICK, WUSS, DOUCHEBAG, ASSHOLE, PRICK, CHEATER, BITCH, WHORE, SLUT, COCKSUCKER. This is by far worse than “poop your pants.”

    I am too proud of OU becoming an upset pick, but lets get off our high horse here. These chants will never go away.

  • Anonymous

    I agree wholeheartedly with this article. I am proud to say that I am a Golden Grizzly, cheering on such a successful team. However, I was thoroughly embarrassed when I heard our student section shouting on national TV. There are many other fun chants that are much less childish. Why do we have to resort to 5-year old humor to amuse ourselves?

    Thank you, editors of the Oakland Post, for taking the time to write such a thorough article about a necessary topic.

  • Robbie Williford

    This is completely unnecessary. Is there nothing else to report on? Or what?

  • Billy Rogers

    This post is completely unnecessary. Are you guys really this bored with the campus life at OU that you have to resort to restricting our ability to cheer on our own basketball team because we want them to win? There is nothing wrong with out chant, and if people find it offensive then they better bring ear plugs to the game or just stay at home and watch it on television. This chant is no more crude than fans at Western Michigan chanting, “SEE YA BITCH!”, when a player on the opposing team gets called for a penalty in hockey. Please, find some other public fan-base to criticize and let us cheer on our OU Grizzlies when they go up against Texas on Friday. I’ll be at that game, so listen for the famous chant we all love and adore.

  • Mike Sandula

    We appreciate the feedback.

    Just to clarify: This is an editorial, not a report. It is the opinion of The Oakland Post that the “poop your pants” chant embarrasses the school. Anyone is free to dissent.

    Here is our letters to the editor policy:
    “Writers must provide full name, class rank, phone number and field of study. Please limit letters to 250 words or less. Letters may be edited for content, length and grammar.”
    Please submit to editor@oaklandpostonline.com

    Thank you.
    – Mike Sandula, Managing Editor

  • Owen O’Connor

    I dont understand how “poop your pants” is offensive in any way. It can be seen as childish but that’s the reason it is ok. So many worse things are cheered by student sections that actually could give a school a bad rep but don’t because, when it comes down to it, every school does it and it doesn’t matter. “Sit down bitch!” is just one example of tons of cheers said by teams that are 10 times worse than “Poop your pants!” If anything I think the cheer is great because it is unique and may actually cause the shooter to think twice before letting the ball go and disrupt his focus as opposed to just yelling which is easily blocked out mentally.

  • Mike Sandula

    Our aim wasn’t to contrast and compare Oakland with other schools. What other fans do is their concern.

    We maintain that “poop your pants” is a childish and unnecessary chant. As we mentioned, we’re big fans of everything else OU fans do. It is only this one cheer we disapprove of.

    Much of our staff has attended quite a few games this year. We’ve noticed no effect on the shooter and we’ve heard other fans say they too dislike the chant.

    Again, this is our opinion, and to each his or her own.

    – Mike

  • Robbie Williford

    With all due respect, not any one chant is going to have an effect on the shooter. They’ve grown accustomed to building their selves immune to any chant whatsoever. So what does it matter what we do or don’t say?

    Maybe propose another idea the fans to say?

    Playing devil’s advocate here.

  • Owen O’Connor

    It probably doesn’t have a huge effect on the shooter but what chant will? The only way you are gonna totally distract someone from their shot is by saying something so vulgar and offensive they won’t believe what they heard. And this is obviously not a good idea if people are offended by something as small and meaningless as “poop your pants”. I agree that everyone can have their own opinion on the subject, I just don’t see how it is a problem in any way.

  • Robbie Williford

    Silence helps, if anything. The home team fans are silent during their free throws.

  • Anonymous

    Consistency please, don’t say that the chant won’t rattle a shooter, then proceed to say that silence will. It is just noise, it makes people think twice and chuckle more often than grimace, it keeps the environment clean of foul language and other more crude chants, and you hear it maybe 10 times a game, which isn’t that much compared to consistent chants while on defense for every possession. I also find it hard to believe that it causes the entire national scene to believe our entire school is completely devoid of maturity. If you are going to exaggerate that belief, then let us exaggerate your statement on silence being the most nerve-wracking environment and see the students be totally quiet while the team plays defense. Ridiculous, yes?