Gridiron Traditions

Football teams at all levels have their rituals and traditions – cherished elements of team unity and group memory that veteran players pass on to younger ones year after year, generation after generation.
 
The St. Norbert Green Knights football team is no exception. We have our own traditions – most of them recently minted but well on their way to becoming deeply ingrained in program history.

The Fleur de Lis

The oldest of Green Knights traditions is the stylized fleur de lis that adorns players’ helmets. The use of this image of an iris flower is rooted in the medieval history of the kings of France, who gave the Norbertine order the privilege of using their gold fleur de lis on a blue field for their own coat of arms. The fleur de lis on Green Knights football helmets calls every team member to perform on and off the field in a manner that will bring honor to them and glory to their school.

The Meal, the Walk, the Silence

Since the 2014 season, each home game day begins with Green Knights football team members in their game day off-field uniform (khakis and matching jackets) gathering with their coaches in Michels Commons for breakfast and presentations. Then, walking three or four members across, led by their captains, the team proceeds from Michels to Old St. Joseph Church for 20 minutes of quiet, guided meditation that invites each man to focus on the contest ahead, to try, for a time, to let go of other thoughts and cares.

Only each man knows what he hears in the silence: a sense of his own gifts and talents; whatever he brings to the work of the team; a quieting of his anxieties. Perhaps there is some awareness that deep bonding can happen as much in shared, deep quiet as in speech.

The Rock

When the new Schneider Stadium opened in 2010, the college was walking away from the old Minahan Stadium that once stood across the river on the grounds where St. Norbert Abbey now stands. Respect for the great accomplishments that took place there from 1938 to 2009 led to the decision to bring to Schneider Stadium the Minahan “dedication marker” and install it outside the locker room. Beginning with the first game played at Schneider in September 2010, every player and coach has touched “the rock” on their way out to the field. Touching the rock connects the teammates of today with one another, but also with the teams that played for decades in the old Minahan Stadium.
 
Touching the rock speaks to every man’s intent to put the success of the team before individual glory. Touching the rock speaks also to every man’s intent to carry forward a proud tradition of which he is an inheritor, and which calls him to perform his best for his team and his college.

The Fight Song

An SNC fight song has been sung by the team after victories since the early 1990s. Sometime around 2005 the current song was introduced. It is sung at the end of the weekly Thursday practice so that the new team members can learn it. After a victory, the team moves together toward the stands. They hold their helmets high as a salute to their fans and sing:

“Fight, Fight St. Norbert College proud, brave and strong. Hail, Hail, to Alma Mater, where we belong.
Cheer, cheer for every victory, Knights forever true.
Let’s raise our voices to the GREEN and GOLD,
St. Norbert, here’s to you!”
 
(2010 lyrics by Linda Cook, Michael Rosewall and Bridget O’Connor. Original music written by Norbert Eckert in 1982, rearranged by Linda Cook in 2010.)

The Bell

The college bell came from a chapel located on the campus of Silver Lake College just outside of Manitowoc, Wis. It once called that community to daily worship, to weddings and to funerals. When the chapel was closed, Coach Don Maslinski took the initiative to have the college buy the bell and mount it on a small hay wagon. The bell was first used in the 2002 football season. Originally, cheerleaders would ring the bell after each Green Knights score. Soon after, it was decided to have every team member ring the bell following a home victory. Today, the bell that once called to worship announces and celebrates a game well played.
 
 
In these ways and others, the St. Norbert College Green Knights teams live and celebrate the Norbertine heritage that calls them to, in the words of the St. Norbert College Green Knights Pledge, “contemplate, act, build communio, and teach by word and example.”