Who Dey vs Who Dat

[Burreaux]

I keep hearing people say the Bengals stole the Saints slogan. I’ve researched this and it seems like the Saints adopted it in 1983. The Bengals adopted it in 1981. I’m just making sure I was correct that Bengals fans started this in 1981? I was born in 1982 and remember it during the 88 season but don’t remember much before that because I was to young.

[MileHighGrowler]

Loooong standing debate on this one. In fact, I'm pretty sure some other Bengals board I was on many years ago (cincybengals.com maybe?) had a whole sticky thread about it, with a lot of pages of comments. I'll let the historians dive into this one since it predates my time on this earth by a few years, but it's always an interesting conversation and a source of some contention between the fan bases.

[*michaelsean*]

Who dat as a term dates back to something like the 1920s, but I believe the Saints started using it after the Bengals. I don’t really care either way. Everyone should just let it go and let each fan base use their own chant and not try to claim ownership.

[Bobweaver1]

Who Dey was used first by fans. Although "Who Dat" was a term much older, they didn't start using it until they realized how amazing "Who Dey" sounded. I think people recently think we stole it because people were able to watch NFL package and out of market games.
Add to it that we've sucked and the Saints found some success prior to this year.

[Interceptor]

Who Cares?

But like the poster above me said, Who Dat existed long before WhoDey, but was not considered a chant until Who Dey was used first.

[Johnny Cupcakes]

I know that the old board had an in depth thread on this. I've tried to reference it a few times now, each time realizing that it just doesn't exist anymore.

If I remember correctly, the first use was not by either the Bengals or the Saints, but by local HS/College teams, and that it was first used as a chant at Tulane.

Not sure that it really matters. It's ours now. They can use it too, but it's ours.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

Someone on CJ (think he's on here too) posted a breakdown and history, concisely.

Essentially, the beer, "HuDey," has an actual name that I can't remember right now (HuDey is a nickname that was added after the success of the team) that when said in a drawl, sounds like, "Who Dey," which got coined by the team and began to get used just prior to 1981 (that year it gained steam though, as the team made the SB).

"Who Dat," has indeed been used for over a century in Louisiana, though I can't remember the origin for it now. It was not used in a football sense, however, until AFTER Who Dey became popular in Cincinnati.

So essentially, we came up with the cool thing, that had NOTHING to do with what came first and the Saints took what came first, then repurposed it to fit their team and it is an offshoot/ripoff of our slogan.

And that's the truth.

[Sled21]

(02-02-2022, 12:43 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Someone on CJ (think he's on here too) posted a breakdown and history, concisely.

Essentially, the beer, "HuDey," has an actual name that I can't remember right now (HuDey is a nickname that was added after the success of the team) that when said in a drawl, sounds like, "Who Dey," which got coined by the team and began to get used just prior to 1981 (that year it gained steam though, as the team made the SB).

"Who Dat," has indeed been used for over a century in Louisiana, though I can't remember the origin for it now. It was not used in a football sense, however, until AFTER Who Dey became popular in Cincinnati.

So essentially, we came up with the cool thing, that had NOTHING to do with what came first and the Saints took what came first, then repurposed it to fit their team and it is an offshoot/ripoff of our slogan.

And that's the truth.

Hudepohl beer was sold at the ballparks and the guys carrying it up and down the stairs used to holler Hudy, get your Hudy. Then the beer marketed the Who-Dey beer. 

[BengalRed]

(02-02-2022, 12:43 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: Someone on CJ (think he's on here too) posted a breakdown and history, concisely.

Essentially, the beer, "HuDey," has an actual name that I can't remember right now (HuDey is a nickname that was added after the success of the team) that when said in a drawl, sounds like, "Who Dey," which got coined by the team and began to get used just prior to 1981 (that year it gained steam though, as the team made the SB).

"Who Dat," has indeed been used for over a century in Louisiana, though I can't remember the origin for it now. It was not used in a football sense, however, until AFTER Who Dey became popular in Cincinnati.

So essentially, we came up with the cool thing, that had NOTHING to do with what came first and the Saints took what came first, then repurposed it to fit their team and it is an offshoot/ripoff of our slogan.

And that's the truth.

I started a thread on this a couple of months ago. I remember seeing a Bengals player being interviewed in the late 70s or early 80s and he said (paraphrasing) "who do they think gonna beat the Bengals?". I actually saw this interview several years ago and whoever showed it said that this is when the phrase Who Dey started. I know I didn't dream this but I can't find it anywhere on the interwebs. And I can't find anyone else who saw it. But I'm going to keep searching.

[*PhilHos*]

(02-02-2022, 11:50 AM)Interceptor Wrote: Who Cares?

But like the poster above me said, Who Dat existed long before WhoDey, but was not considered a chant until Who Dey was used first.

Who Dey Dat cares 'bout Dis Dumb Display of Fandom?

In all seriousness, this is like Steeler fans complaining about other teams waving a team-colored moisture-absorbent cloth at football games. Doesn't matter which came first, OURS is the best and most popular.

[BengalYankee]

[Frank Booth]

(02-02-2022, 12:43 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: "Who Dat," has indeed been used for over a century in Louisiana, though I can't remember the origin for it now. It was not used in a football sense, however, until AFTER Who Dey became popular in Cincinnati.

this 

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

I knew most of this as I remember all the older threads about it. Bottom line, both teams have their own saying and
its all good. Ours is just better lol

[*Go Cards*]

All I know is Who Dey his going to the Super Bowl and who dat bothers I could care less.

[*Go Cards*]

Still have my Who Dey Hudepohl beer six packs from both previous Super Bowl runs.

[*Awful Llama*]

So, no love for 'Who dis?'

[Shake n Blake]

(02-02-2022, 08:18 PM)Awful Llama Wrote: So, no love for 'Who dis?'

Na. That's just a rip off of 'Who Dem?'

[Roland]

The thread at the old forum linked to something that traced "Who Dat" back to minstrel shows.   Pretty sure that means that it should be cancelled.  Anyway, that use is irrelevant.

Some high school team in LA did use "Who Dat" sometime around '79.  Again, irrelevant.  It was a local news story and that's it.

"Who Dey" was first mentioned in the papers around the time of the '82 Super Bowl.  Glenn Rutherford wrote this about it in The Louisville Courier-Journal on 25 Jan 1982.

Quote:When you think about it most cheers at sporting events are senseless. So it stands to reason that the Cincinnati Bengals "Who Dey" cheer doesn't make any sense.

Unless you're a Bengals fan, of course.

The "Who Dey" cheer has been ubiquitous in Cincinnati ever since the Bengals started winning. Radio stations are playing it department stores are displaying it and everybody's taking credit for it. 

Who Dey.
Who Dey.
Who Dey think Dey [sic] beat dem Bengals.

Roughly translated, it means, "Who do they think they are, thinking they can beat the Bengals?"

And regardless of what the radio stations and local newspapers say, the cheer was born in Crowley's Highland House Cafe on Cincinnati's Mount Adams.

Frankje Bennett thought it up and introduced it to the rest of the guys during a Highland House football trip to Chicago. Soon the fans in Riverfront Stadium section 159 were shouting it; and it wasn't long before the rest of the stadium crowd was yelling it too.

So, the "Who Dey" signs and the "Who Dey" cheers were everywhere yesterday especially at the Highland House Cafe.

He doesn't cite any source for this story.  It's interesting that the Bengals didn't play at Chicago in '81.  They played at Chicago in December of '80.   Even though the Bengals had a bad season in '80, they had won two in a row at that point. If they were diehard enough to travel to Chicago for a game there's no reason to think they wouldn't try to come up with a cheer.  Who wants to be yet another "Here we go SPORTS TEAM, here we go?"   And that would have given it the entire following '81 season to catch on at the stadium before the Super Bowl.

[Burreaux]

I didn't know this was such a highly debated topic in the past. Sean Payton making the comment he was rooting for the Bengals but Who Dat came first brought the question on.

[Sled21]

It's pretty obvious Who Dat was in use first as a minstrel show phrase, but the Saints fans didn't adopt it as a football cheer until after Who-Dey. What I never understand is how "Redskins" was so racist they threatened to take the football team away from the owner, but "Who Dat?" is fine, as is the chant the KC Chief's fans use that sounds like something out of a 1950's western where all the Indians were played by white guys.