Skyrockets, the Transatlantic Cable and
Pre-Civil War Militia Units
The Explosive History of Sis! Boom! Bah!
The events immediately
preceding the game were as primitive as the game itself. The spectators who had arrived early
appropriated seats upon the top board of a fence which partly surrounded the
field, while the others found places upon the ground. There was no admission fee, no waving of
flags. The famous orange and black still
was in the forming. But there were
college songs, and, strange to say, a college cheer, Princeton’s booming rocket
call [(Sis! Boom! Ah!)], hissing and bursting just as it does to-day.
Parke H. Davis, Football - The American Intercollegiate Game
(Scribner & Sons, 1911), page 46.
But the cheer is even older. When Princeton played Rutgers in 1869, Princeton students had already been saying Sis! Boom! Ah! for at least ten years.
The standard history of the
cheer, as taught to
Princeton freshmen at orientation (the "locomotive" version shown in the link is a later variation from the 1890s), holds that Princeton students learned
the cheer from New York’s Seventh Regiment when their train stopped in
Princeton on their way to war, shortly after the outbreak of the Civil
War. The cheer, however, predates the
Civil War, and did not originate with the New York Seventh. The New York Seventh learned it from another
militia unit. As it turns out, however, even
if some Princeton students first heard the cheer from the “Seventh” in 1861,
the phrase may have been coined by a group of Princeton students in August of
1858.
The Early Days
Sis! Boom! Ah! was already an
established Princeton institution in 1868 when students cheered the school’s
new President, Dr. James
M’Cosh, after his inaugural address:
‘Long live President M’Cosh!’
and then proposed three cheers, which were given with a will, followed by the
usual tiger and ‘rocket.’ This rocket, by the way, is a thoroughly Princeton
institution, and as such deserving a word of description. It is given with a f-z-z-z – boom – a
---h! The first exclamation is supposed
to imitate the fight of a rocket in the air, the second the explosion, and the
third the admiring exclamations of the enthusiastic spectators as they witness
the burst of colored fire.
New York Times, October 29, 1868.
 |
| Equestrian Statue of George Washington |
The New York Times piece was not the general public’s first
opportunity to learn about the “rocket” cheer, however. In 1860, Vanity
Fair published a poem that recounted the New York Seventh Regiment’s adventures
during a trip to Washington DC to take part in the dedication ceremony for the Equestrian
Statue of George Washington (ironically, the statue depicts Washington as
he appeared at the Battle
of Princeton).
The skyrocket cheer appears as part
of the refrain at the end of each of the four stanzas. The first two stanzas describe how the
Seventh learned the “Sky-Rocket Cheer” from the Baltimore City Guards on their
way to Washington:
THE
SKY-ROCKET CHEER
(Respectfully
Dedicated, Without any Permission Whatever, to the
Seventh
Regiment.)
Air – Bow, wow, wow.
I.
The Seventh Regiment went on,
As we have heard it stated,
To see the Horse and Washington
Duly inaugurated;
And when they came to Baltimore
They all got ripe and mellow,
And each and every soldier
swore
He was a jolly fellow
With his ch-h-h.! boom! Ah!
Rol-de-rol de riddle-diddle, ch-h-h! boom!
Ah!!!
II.
The City Guard turned out in
force
To meet our Seventh’s boys, sir;
They had a goodly time, of
course,
And made a goodly noise, sir;
They did the thing for men to
do
With heart, and hand, and pocket,
And taught the Seventh
something new-
That cheer – the great Sky-Rocket,
With its ch-h-h! boom! Ah!
Fol-de-rol de riddle-diddle, c-h-h-h! boom!!
Ah!!!
Vanity Fair, Volume 1 (March 1860), page 164.
The Baltimore City Guards and the New York Seventh Regiment were not the only militia units to use the skyrocket cheer; the Cleveland Grays also used the “new rocket cheer” in 1861:
We are pleased to acknowledge
the compliment of a grand serenade and new rocket cheer by the spirited
Cleveland Grays and their excellent Band, at a very early hour this
morning. Long may both wave!
Cleveland Morning Leader, October 5, 1860.
The cheer also seems to have been
used by Confederate troops from Louisiana on their way to fight in the Civil
War less than a year later:
“Letter from an Orleans Cadet.
Richmond, June 10, 1861.” [(News of the
trip to Richmond: In Salem, Virginia)], “[a]n ample dinner was spread on planks
placed on the ground, and never did we relish more a dinner than we did this
one. Several articles of provisions were
left on the tables, which we were
told, were all ours, and must be “filed away for future reference,” to use a
mercantile term. With three times three
cheers, a tiger and a sky-rocket [(italics in original)], we
left this hospitable town, and arrived at Lynchburg at 10 o’clock the next
night.”
New Orleans Daily Crescent, June 21, 1861. The use of italics for both “tiger” and
“sky-rocket” suggests that sky-rocket refers to the cheer, as opposed to actual
rockets.
The “skyrocket” continued to be
used by military units, even into the 1880s.
At a meeting of the Thirteenth Regiment (New York Volunteers) in
Brooklyn, New York, on the occasion of a visit from General Fitzhugh Lee and
his staff, of the First Virginia Volunteers:
Three cheers were given for
Gen. Lee, with the customary skyrocket tiger, fizz-boom-ah!
The Sun (New York), February 8, 1883.
Veterans of New York’s Seventh
continued their skyrocket tradition at a reunion dinner held at Coney Island in 1882:
Each company rose to its feet simultaneously
and drank the health of the other, and then they gave their ringing “sky-rocket”
cheer, which fairly shook the building, each platoon of cheerers striving to
outshout the others.
The Uniformed Battalion of the Veterans of the Seventh Regiment,
National Guard S. N. Y, 1861-1892 (Rogers & Sherwood, 1893), page 35.
The “rocket” may also have been
used in New Orleans as early as 1859. A report
about protests against the Know-nothing Party (who controlled the position of
Mayor of New Orleans from 1856 until occupation in the Civil War) describes the
use of three cheers, a tiger and a rocket. The leader of the protest carried a yellow,
knotted stick, or baton, that resembled a bed-post:
The yellow bed-post flourishes
in the air, and the flourisher yells, “Three cheers for Judge Cotton!” Given, with rockets and a “tiger-cat” for lagniappe,
by the enthusiastic sovereigns who look to the man with the bed-post as their
leader. . . . Grand flourish of the
yellow bed-post, and tremendous cheers, with rockets from the field.”
New Orleans Daily Crescent, October 3, 1859. Lagniappe,
by the way, is a New Orleans-French word meaning, a little extra something.
It is not entirely clear from the
context of the story, however, whether the rockets are real or virtual, vocalized
skyrockets. The article describes an actual
fireworks display earlier in the story, so it is debatable. But the three cheers, a tiger and rockets, in
is at least suggestive of the phrase that Princeton would adopt as its college
cheer.
[As a side note, the "tiger" in the original Princeton cheer, as well as the "tiger" mentioned in other contexts here, is unrelated to the Princeton "Tiger" nickname, which evolved later, after Princeton started wearing orange and black-striped uniforms. The "tiger" in the cheers is from an even older cheer format, "three cheers and a tiger," which dates to about 1830 (it has its own disputed or uncertain history which may be the topic of a later post). A "tiger" is a low growl, the word "tiger" or elongated tiger-r-r-r-r, extended into a growl, which was added after the traditional "three cheers," to indicate particularly strong approval.]
[As a side note, the "tiger" in the original Princeton cheer, as well as the "tiger" mentioned in other contexts here, is unrelated to the Princeton "Tiger" nickname, which evolved later, after Princeton started wearing orange and black-striped uniforms. The "tiger" in the cheers is from an even older cheer format, "three cheers and a tiger," which dates to about 1830 (it has its own disputed or uncertain history which may be the topic of a later post). A "tiger" is a low growl, the word "tiger" or elongated tiger-r-r-r-r, extended into a growl, which was added after the traditional "three cheers," to indicate particularly strong approval.]
Sis! (the Launch)
The Vanity Fair piece about the New York Seventh and the Baltimore City
Guards does not tell us where the Guards learned the cheer. But it is possible, that they learned the cheer from a student or
someone else with a connection to Princeton.
James W. Alexander gives the
following description of the possible history of Sis-Boom-Ah:
On all public occasions student
enthusiasm finds expression in the well-known Princeton cheer – the “sky-rocket,”
as it has been called. Undergraduates of
to-day may think it has come down from a time “whereof the memory of man
runneth not to the contrary.” But this
would be an error. All college cheers
are of modern date. Princeton’s is among
the oldest; nevertheless, thirty-six years ago it was unknown. Where did it
come from? Who invented it? These are momentous questions, and are answered
differently by different men. A member
of the Class of ’60 declares that the late Dr. Woolsey Johnson, of New York, of
that class, first sounded the “Hooray, hooray, hooray! Tiger, siss-boom-ah,
Princeton!” in one of Professor Schenck’s recitations.
Alexander Porter Morse, of Washington, of
the Class of ’62, claims that the cheer was consecrated during what he calls
the noctes ambrosianae of the “McVeigh
Group,” between 1858 and 1861, and adduces the written testimony in his own
Princeton autograph-book, where, over the literary contribution of a
fellow-collegian, written in June, 1860, is found this cabalistic combination:
“Sh-sh-boom!
! Ah-h-h-h-h-h!
But Chancellor Alexander T. McGill, of
the Class of ’64, says he remembers quite distinctly when the Seventh Regiment of
New York went to the war, and how nearly the whole College went down through
the Potter Woods to the old depot by the canal at midnight to greet it as it
passed through. The chers of the boys
were responded to by the Seventh with the “sky-rocket,” which so impressed the
youthful mind that it was indulged in, at first as borrowed property, and
later, as time advanced, was adopted as the college cheer.
Princeton -- Old and New: Recollections of Undergraduate Life, C. Scribner’s Sons (1898).
James W. Alexander’s book was
based on an article he first published in 1897, Undergraduate Life at Princeton
– Old and New, Scribner’s Magazine,Volume
XXI, June 1897, Number 6). The account
in the book differed from the account in the original article, in that the
passage in the book added the paragraph about Alexander Porter Morse and the “cabalistic
combination” in his Princeton autograph-book.
The source of the additional
information is a letter to the editor written by Alexander Porter Morse in
response to James W. Alexander’s Scribner’s
article. While we might be tempted to
discount Morse’s story, based on his involvement in establishing the separate-but-equal
interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause (he represented the State of
Louisiana in Plessy v Ferguson), his detailed
explanation of the history of sis-boom-ah seems very plausible. You be the judge:
PRINCETON'S “SKYROCKET”Cheer
It First Became Known at the Atlantic
Cable Celebration.
To the Editor of The Evening Star:
. . . [M]y best independent recollection
is that the “skyrocket” cheer of Princeton was introduced without any other
formality than that which attaches to any taking fashion which is adopted by a
community or combination of persons having a common interest, at a date that
was synchronous with the celebration in the city of New York and in Princeton
of the successful laying and operation of the Atlantic cable. In commemoration
of this achievement of mechanical and scientific skill on the part of American
and English pluck and talent, New York and Princeton indulged in, at that time,
very rare and unusual pyrotechnic displays; and the sound of the exploding
skyrocket was a new sensation, which appealed to the imagination and the
physical exuberance of undergraduates.
The final success of this transatlantic
submarine cable was the great event of the period, in which the scientific and
intelligent minds of the country took a deep interest; and Princeton professors
and students commemorated the event with great enthusiasm. The vocal imitation
on the campus and in town, occasional at first, soon became recurrent upon
slight provocation until it became somewhat familiar at a period which
antedates the war.
While there was, so far as the writer is
aware, no formal adoption of the "skyrocket" as the college cheer, it
seems to him that it was consecrated during the “Noctes Ambrosianae” of the “McVeigh group,” who contributed
something to the history of the college between the years 1858 and 1861, not
found in the ordinary chronicles. I
include in this group not only the princely fellows who lodged at McVeigh's,
but also many of their boon companions, whose rooms were in “Old North” or “East”
or “West” colleges, and who occasionally participated in the literary and
musical exercises in the big brick building, which were not always announced in
the college curriculum. Among the latter,
I recall the historian now under review, who was wont to regale his select
audience with the ballad of the “Old Gray Horse” and other popular melodies,
with a banjo accompaniment of considerable verve. Another was Georgius-Tyler
Olmsted, jr., with whose name I have always associated the popularization if
not the introduction of the “skyrocket” as a college cheer. The latter was a member of 1860 – the same
class as Woolsey Johnson, to whom has been attributed the formulation of the “Hooray,
hooray, tiger, siss-boom-ah, Princeton;” and it may well be that these two good
fellows may be called the sponsors of the Princeton skyrocket.
I am confirmed in my recollection that
the “skyrocket” cheer antedated the war, and the passage through Princeton
Junction of the 7th Regiment of New York, by written testimony which appears in
my Princeton autograph book, where over the literary contribution of Geo. T.
Olmsted, jr., of the class of 1860, which was subscribed in May or June of that
year, I find this cabalistic combination:
“Sh-sh-Boom ! ! Ah-h-h-h-h-h.”
Evening Star (Washington DC) on June
2, 1897.
The fireworks celebrations were
very extravagant, and were drawn out over several weeks. The first rash of celebrations occurred on or
around August 5th and 6th, when the cable was first connected. But the cable did not open for business for
several more days, while testing was completed and necessary hardware and
infra-structure was completed. Even
bigger celebrations took place after August 16, when the cable was officially
opened for business with an exchange of messages between Queen Victoria and
President Buchanan:
“The Queen is convinced that
the President will join with her in fervently hoping that the Electric Cable
which now connects Great Britain with the United States, will prove an additional
link between the nations whose friendship is founded upon their common interest
and reciprocal esteem”
First
Message over the Atlantic Cable – August 16, 1858.
.
. . The reception of the Queen’s Message on the 16th and 17th
of August, however, produced the most remarkable effect. Celebrations which had been promised, but
were postponed until the certainty of success became assured, took place under
circumstances of unusual impressiveness.
That which occurred in the city of New York, on the evening o Tuesday,
August 17, was in many respects the most remarkable popular demonstration that
has occurred for many years. . . . From
the City Hall, the hotels and offices, flags floated. Banners were displayed in the leading
thoroughfares, as night drew on; and at dusk the City Hall, the Astor House,
the newspaper establishments, stores and dwellings in the lower part of the
city blazed with the light of a spontaneous illumination. Unfortunately a
display of fine pyrotechny which took place in front of the City Hall, resulted
in a disaster to that fine edifice; the unconsumed remains of the fireworks
igniting the roof of the Hall and producing a partial destruction of the upper
floor. The celebration was marked by the
burning of a City Hall, and the two events became historical together.
Charles F. Briggs and Augustus
Maverick, The Story of the Telegraph, and
a History of the Great Atlantic Cable, Rudd & Carleton, (1858).
Boom! (the Explosion)
Whatever the origin, the phrase
caught on and soon spread. When people
first started sis-boom-ahing one another in and around Princeton, New Jersey in
1858, the phrase was catchy enough to be repeated, progressively, more and more
often, until it was familiar and eventually adopted as the official school
cheer.
 |
| Punch - November 28, 1868 |
 |
| Vanity Fair, March 17, 1860 |
Before the war, many of Princeton’s
students, from the North and South, drilled together as members of the local
militia. When the war broke out in 1861,
nearly a third of Princeton’s students were from the South; presumably some from
New Orleans. The Southern students all “crossed
the lines” and returned home. Many of them
would fight for the confederacy, and against some of their former classmates. Princeton
– Old and New, page 100-102.
The Baltimore City Guards, who also
played a major role in the early spread of Sis! Boom! Ah!, suffered a similar
fate. Maryland, a border state, had
voted to remain in the Union. But many
members of the Guard were Southern sympathizers who chose to fight for the
South. The unit disbanded in 1861. But its
singular contribution to pop-culture soldiered on.
Sis! Boom! Ah! survived the war
and thrived on the battle fields of athletic competition. By the mid-1870s, many of the elite Eastern
universities had developed their own distinctive college cheers. Following the races at a large collegiate regatta
on Lake Saratoga in 1875:
“. . . the students amused
themselves by running foot-races down the principal street, and by Columbia
shouting the “Rah!” “Rah!” “Rah!” of Harvard, and the latter the
“C-O-L-U-M-B-I-A” of Columbia. . . . The
effect of this was heightened by the rich displays of the college colors
festooned around the columns of the States, Union and Congress [(hotels)] the
different colleges, meanwhile, each in turn, shouting their particular battle cries
as they moved along. . . . Passing through the hotel, they entered the
courtyard and made it ring with the college cheers repeated in succession, all
joining in one chorus. The Yale boys
shouted “Yale” and the Harvard’s “rah’d,” as if the pipe of peace had been
smoked and the hatchet buried. The
“three cheers and a tiger,” followed by the “fizz, boom, ah!” of Princeton was
also a favorite cry, but all spelled “C-O-R-N-E double L” with a vim.
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, July 31, 1875, page 367.
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| Grover Cleveland doing the Princeton Rocket |
A-h-h-h! (The Appreciation)
But in time, Princeton’s Sis!
Boom! Ah! would be adapted and modified for use in many other schools’ cheers. In 1889, for example, the following variants were
in use:
Georgetown:
Georgetown, tiger, sis, boom, ah!
Hamilton:
Rah! Rah rah! Hamilton! Zip, ‘rah, boom!
Indiana
University: I-U! I-U! I-U! ‘rah, ‘rah, ‘rah! Saith boom, bang!
NYU:
‘Rah, ‘rah, ‘rah! N.Y.U.! sis! Boom! Ah-h-h!
Tennessee:
Bim-boom-bee! ‘rah, ‘rah! Tennessee!
Miscellaneous Notes and Queries with Answers, Volume VI, Number 6,
page 301.
The Princeton students who first
yelled Sis! Boom! Ah! in 1858 might have had second thoughts if they could have
forseen what sixty years of arms-race-style one-upsmanship would bring. By 1918, the simple, evocative Sis! Boom! Ah!
would be twisted beyond recognition into such classics as:
Augustana College: Rocky-eye,
Rocky-eye, Zip zum Zie, Shingerata, Shingerata,
Bim, Bum, Bie. Zip-zum, zipzum. Rah! Rah! Rah!
Karaborra Karaborra, Augustana!,”
Bim, Bum, Bie. Zip-zum, zipzum. Rah! Rah! Rah!
Karaborra Karaborra, Augustana!,”
LSU:
Hobble, Gobble! Razzle, Dazzle! Siss, Boom, Bah!
Louisiana! Louisiana! Rah! Rah! Rah!,”
Louisiana! Louisiana! Rah! Rah! Rah!,”
Trinity
Collge: Rah, rah, rah, hip-poo-pee-phiz-boom-tiger-hipporah-hipporah! Trinity!
Wesleyan
(women): Boom-a-lacka! Boom-a-lacka! Bow-wow, wow!
Chick-a-lacka! Chick-a-lacka, Chow, Chow, Chow!
Boom-a-lacka, Chickalaca! Who are we? Wesleyan! Wesleyan!
W. F. C!”
World Almanac and Encyclopedia 1918, Newspaper Enterprise Association, 1917.
And then there’s my personal favorite (date unknown):
And then there’s my personal favorite (date unknown):
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