John Haeussler, among others, wonders what the significance of SKI-U-MAH!
is to us Gopher fans.  Thought it's a temptation to keep up the suspense,
I will explain all here.  This is excerpted from an article by Stephen
Lorinser in the Minnesota Daily of October 30, 1987:
 
<<quoted material begins>>
 
Years earlier, simultaneous with the arrival of real rugby football at
Minnesota in 1884, the first college cheers rung though the autumn air.
 
Coach Thomas Peebles, a Princeton man, used to divide his players in
two squads and scrimmage.  Every time the squad he coached pushed over
a touchdown, he'd scream, "Sis-Boom-Ah, Princeton!"
 
Two roommates, John W. Adams and "Win" Sargent were determined to devise
a distinctly Minnesota yell of two [three?] three-syllable lines.
 
"Rah, rah, rah," was an obvious first choice.  Minnesota, pronounced
"Minn so ta," was another.  The third was problematic.
 
Adams recalled a canoe race between four native Americans he had seen the
year before in Lake City, Minn.  As the lead canoe pulled across the
finish line, the lad at the paddle yelled, "Ski-oo."
 
Adams recalled that the Sioux children used this expression when winning
any athletic event or to express exultation or pleasure.  He added "mah"
to rhyme "rah" and "ta," putting emphasis on the second syllable to
create:  "Rah, RAH, rah.  Ski OO mah.  Minn SO ta!"
 
The yell was printed for the first time in the Ariel of 1885, in the
following form:
   Rah, Rah, Rah.
   Ski-U-Mah.
   Minn-so-ta!
 
<<end of quoted material>>
 
SKI-U-MAH! eventually appeared in the Minnesota Rouser and other Gopher
fight songs and cheers.  Now you know.
 
-- Erik
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Erik Biever                                                     Ski-U-Mah!
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