Coolest Pregame

To me the coolest pre game ritual is the players just running onto field and then going out and kicking ass. Simple but effective.

 

I can live with other Polynesian nations doing it. I think maybe Tonga and a couple of others do because it's their heritage as well. When the University of Hawaii does it ... uh, no.

 

Enter Sandman is cool. It's not original, but it is cool.

 

Because there are no Polynesians in Hawaii?
Huh?

 

New Hampshire ice hockey - all the lights at the Whittemore Center are turned off and the sound system, cranked to the highest volume, starts blasting "Carmina Burana." First, the mascots skate out, then the players skate out in single-file formation.

This description doesn't do it justice, though. Nor does this video (maybe it's the thunderstix)

 

This stretches the idea of "pre-game" somewhat, but within the context:

KENTUCKY DERBY: Call to post, "My Old Kentucky Home" and loading the horses into the gate.

INDIANAPOLIS 500-MILE RACE: Taps, "Back Home Again" (particularly with Jim Nabors) and "(Ladies and) Gentlemen, start your engines."

OLYMPIC OPENING CEREMONIES: Entrance of the athletes, Olympic flag, Olympic hymn, oath and the torchbearer, followed by the lighting of the flame.

Those are ones that makes the hairs of the back of my neck stand at attention every time.

 

Only New Zealand does the Haka. Other nations have their own rituals, like Fiji and the Cibi:

UH used to do the Haka but stopped when they got called out for chumping the All Blacks' style. I think the Sugar Bowl year was the first with their own ritual, which they called the ha'a (as opposed to the A-Ha).

 

Polynesians in Hawaii yes, but a whole lot non Polynesians on the football team... a whole of of kids on the football team that doesn't know what the hell Polynesian means.

 

I'm absolutely biased, but to me, there's nothing better in sports than the 15-minutes leading up to the Kentucky Derby. It's such a simple, elegant lead-in followed by two minutes of absolute madness, and none of it is manufactured.

 

I think when they did it on the Real World Road Rule Challenge - they pretty much killed it.

 

never seen it in person, but the Oregon Duck riding in on the motorcycle seems pretty cool, too

 

agreed.