Weird, Wonderful Traditions: Syracuse's burning of the shoes
So dark was the age of GERG at Syracuse, there's only one way to relegate it forever to history's deepest, most impenetrable dungeon -- mock sacrifice consumed by ritualistic flames:
Under Dick MacPherson and Paul Pasqualoni, the Orange men had a tradition following each season of burning their practice cleats/shoes. It was a symbolic act of cleansing themselves from the season. That tradition was vacated under Greg Robinson, but will return under [new head coach Doug] Marrone. In fact, Marrone said he may re-start the tradition before the start of spring practice as a means of putting the past in the rear-view mirror.
No word if Ernie Davis' anachronistic Nikes will be added to the pyre.
Marrone knows well the spiritual benefits of putting torch to cleat, having lit his own footwear under MacPherson in the early eighties. Now, if 'Cuse can only lose the helmet decals, renew its brief run of frighteningly athletic quarterbacks and make the merely Orange once again the Orangemen (as befits their manly nonconference schedule), the purge will be complete.
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Do your team have an offbeat tradition, ritual or chant mostly unknown to outsiders? Describe it in grisly, gory detail: sundaymorningqb-at-yah00, etc. And we're quite aware of the "Dotting of the 'i,'" thanks.
