Everything you need to know about UND coach Bubba Schweigert's Griddy victory dance

Oct. 13—GRAND FORKS — UND football coach Bubba Schweigert disputes Zeeland, N.D., can't dance.

"Polkas and waltzes," Schweigert said of his tiny hometown in south-central North Dakota. "That's what it was when I was growing up. They were great."

But the old Germans from Russia in McIntosh County, Schweigert admits, might not recognize the Griddy.

The Griddy, as performed by the 60-year-old Schweigert in the locker room, has become the victory dance for the UND football team since the spring of 2021.

"Once we're in the locker room after a big win, seeing Bubba gimp his way to the locker room and hit that Griddy, it's pretty electric," UND quarterback Quincy Vaughn said.

The tradition started in the spring of 2021 when UND beat Southern Illinois 44-21 on Feb. 20 to begin the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season.

After the game, 36-year-old UND offensive coordinator Danny Freund met with Schweigert on the field.

"He comes out of the box, sees me on the turf, and we're excited to win the game; we'd waited a long time to play football," Schweigert explained.

"Coach, you have to do the Griddy," Freund said.

"What's the Griddy?" Schweigert said.

"I'll teach you in the hallway, but the guys will love it," Freund said.

Freund did a quick tutorial for Schweigert before entering the locker room.

"Danny's pretty good at it," Schweigert said. "I really haven't been close to what the Griddy is supposed to look like."

"I don't think anyone expected it," Vaughn said. "People were doing it at practice, but then he started Griddying and everyone just lost it, and it got the whole locker room fired up. It's a little motivation for a win; it's cool to see him do that thing."

UND players can occasionally be seen wearing a hooded sweatshirt with a cartoon version of Schweigert doing the Griddy.

Schweigert said he receives occasional advice on how to fix his technique.

"The players stay out of it," Schweigert said. "I think they have a lot of fun with it when I'm not around and imitate how not to do it, which is fine. They can have fun with it. But I get a lot of feedback at home, like, hey, you cheated the guys today. You hardly did it."

Complicating the execution is Schweigert has had two hip surgeries in recent years.

"That doesn't help," he said. "There's no pain, but you have to get the hips a little better. I blame it on that, but we don't have much rhythm, either."

Vaughn confirms UND players avoid Griddy critiques of the head coach.

"I don't think we can fix that form any time soon," Vaughn said. "We love it. As bad as it is, it's great for us to see."

The UND players may avoid Griddy guidance but that same grace doesn't extend to little kids.

"The youth camps ... the kids are all about it," Schweigert said. "They show me how to do it. I'm not very good at it, and I don't know if that's changing."

Critiques for Schweigert even came from the creator of the dance himself, Allen "Griddy" Davis.

Davis, as a high school football player, created the Griddy and uploaded videos to YouTube. He introduced the dance to one of his best friends and teammate Ja'Marr Chase, a future LSU and Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver.

When Chase began playing at LSU, he showed it to fellow wide receiver Justin Jefferson, now of the Minnesota Vikings.

As Chase and Jefferson started to make the dance a national phenomenon, UND was playing a strange spring season with limited attendance due to COVID-19.

Because of the limited attendance, UND considered ways to bring fans in to the game experience with online content. One of those avenues was to follow Schweigert into the locker room as the team sang the school song.

That plan — unintentionally to some degree — brought the Schweigert dances to the masses.

After UND beat South Dakota State 28-17 at the Alerus on Feb. 27, 2021, Alec Johnson, UND's Director of Communications for Athletics, posted to Twitter Schweigert's Griddy.

Davis, on Twitter at @lahgriddy2x, sent Johnson a direct message on Feb. 28.

"He said coach needs to master the shoulder work part," Johnson said. "He sent me a video of him doing the Griddy and said look at the 7-second mark. He needs to loosen up the shoulders. He said to tell (Schweigert) he enjoys watching him do my dance."

From then on, Davis occasionally messages Johnson to grade Schweigert's latest attempt at the Griddy.

Johnson said the Schweigert Griddy is consistently the department's most interacted-with post online.

"(Davis) said more shoulders, so I gave more shoulders," Schweigert said. "I can do the eye part. I have that down."

Schweigert's Griddy leads into the team singing the school song, a tradition started by former UND coach Roger Thomas.

"We were at halftime in a tight game and Roger told the guys we're going to get that fourth quarter, win that game, and we are singing that fight song," Schweigert said. "That's when the tradition started, and it has continued on."

When Schweigert began his tenure as head coach at Minnesota Duluth in 2004, he started the tradition of singing the school song in the locker room after teaching the team the song.

When he was defensive coordinator at Southern Illinois from 2008-13, the Salukis — under the leadership of former UND coach Dale Lennon — also sang the fight song after wins.

"The guys put in so much time and effort," Schweigert said. "To get a positive result, you have to celebrate it. Now, you have to be able to handle it afterwards but any win is a good win. We're going to celebrate it because they're all hard."