Boise State decided to dance to someone else's cult song — Oregon did not like that at all.
And this story turned out to be even funnier: Boise State had prepared for this in advance — coach Spencer Danielson admitted that Shout was played at practices to get the team ready for Oregon's signature ritual.
There are things in sports that are better left untouched.
Trophies.
Mascots.
And, as it turned out, other teams' cult songs.
During the Oregon Ducks vs. Boise State game on 5 September at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, the traditional moment arrived: between the third and fourth quarters, Shout — a song from the film National Lampoon’s Animal House— began to play.
For Oregon fans, this is almost a sacred ritual.
On the big screen, the famous video with former team stars is shown, the stands sing, jump, and dance.
But this time, something unforeseen happened.
The Boise State players looked at all this and decided:
"Why are we any worse?"
And they started dancing along with everyone.
And vigorously, with pleasure, on someone else's field.
At that moment the score was 24:24, so the hosts took such merriment not as a friendly flash mob, but almost as a personal insult.
Oregon quarterback Dante Moore later admitted that the team's reaction was something like:
"Hey, you can't do that in our house."
Tight end Jamari Johnson was especially angry.
And here the best part of the story came to light.
Boise State were not dancing by chance at all.
Team coach Spencer Danielson said that they had been playing Shout at practices for several weeks, specifically preparing for the fourth quarter in Eugene.
So it wasn't a spontaneous dance.
It was a prepared operation.
Something like:
— Did you learn the plays?
— Yes.
— Did we analyze their defense?
— Yes.
— Can we dance to Shout?
— We've been rehearsing for two weeks.
In the end, Oregon still won 34:27, and the decisive touchdown came after the dance provocation.
So the moral turned out to be quite simple:
away from home, you can feel at home.
But sometimes the hosts start playing noticeably angrier after that. 😄
