Sport: Rah-Rah-Brooklyn

To the American ear, organized cheering sounds right at football games, wrong at baseball games. Nevertheless, this week will see the first organized cheering section in a major-league ball park: at a Dodger-Giant game at Ebbets Field, 6,000 members of Brooklyn's Knothole Gang (schoolboy fans) will whoop it up for the dear old Dodgers. Cheerleaders: the "Reg'lar Fellers" kids (Puddin'head, Wash Jones, Jimmy Dugan and his dopey cousin Dinky), comic-strip radio characters.

Sample cheer:

Let Ott rot,

Tie Terry in a knot,

Give Hubbell trouble,

Knock 'em silly with Camilli,

Dodgers, Dodgers,

Rah! Rah! Rah!

For Wash Jones (Harlem's Eddie Phillips), the eleven-year-old who is always counted on for...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!