Tradition - We Wear Our Hats Backwards

The Mavericks celebrate their 2013 NCAA DII Baseball
Central Region Championshp

Many college sports teams have certain things that they do that are considered traditions to their programs.

Certainly many of the most famous ones come from large football programs such as Ohio State's Dotting the i. Texas A&M has Midnight Yell and its 12th Man. Auburn has War Eagle, Colorado runs out its buffalo mascot Ralphie and Clemson football players touch Howard's Rock before each game.

Big-time college basketball does it as well.  Fans sing Rocky Top at Tennessee and there's the Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk chant at Kansas.

Small schools do it, too. Taylor University does Silent Night, in which students remain silent until the men's basketball team scores its 10th point, at which point they go completely crazy. A youtube video from Taylor's game in 2012 has nearly 1.8 million views.

The traditions at Minnesota State aren't quite as famous, but the Mavericks do have a few of their own. Ours are a little more subtle.

A few years back a Victory Bell was installed in the northwest end of Blakeslee Stadium and following each home win the Mavericks all take a turn doing their Quasimodo impression. We sing "Ole" following our goals at Verizon Wireless Center and the team does a stick salute to fans following the conclusion of each home series.  And while I can't name them all, our softball team has its own list of songs and chants that have evolved over the years.

One of the things our baseball team has done over the years is only done following championships.  I don't think it's something the Mavericks talk about. Just something that has been organic in that it was silly and it happened once and they just started doing it again because it happened again the next year.  And the next.  And the next.  This would be the "we wear our hats backwards after winning another title" tradition.

Not cocky.  Just something our guys do. Alot. One of my favorite traditions.

It's great to be a Maverick.