It was fall 1983, and as part of a prep sports preview package for WVUE-TV, sports anchor Ken Berthelot and photographer Avis Landry captured video of the St. Augustine High School Purple Knights football team engaging in a daily pre-practice chant. Meant to psych the team up, it went, "Who dat?! Who dat?! Who dat talk about beatin' St. Aug?"
When WVUE sports director Ron Swoboda saw it, he knew they had something special.
"I thought, 'I love this cheer. We've got to play this a few times during the week,'" Swoboda said in a 2010 interview with The Times-Picayune.
The package first aired on Sept. 1, 1983. It was immediately clear that Swoboda wasn't the only one taken with it. Three days later, it could be heard echoing through the Superdome for the New Orleans Saints' home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals. It has yet to cease.
Since that 1983 season, cries of "Who Dat?!" have become a key part of Saints fan culture, with opposing teams being showered by it routinely.
In 2010, Saints quarterback Drew Brees codified its game-day usage with the introduction of what has become a pre-game ritual: After the coin toss, a pre-determined player or guest will raise his or her hand over their head on the field. When they drop their hand, that's the cue for everyone in the Superdome to launch into three thundering rounds of the "Who Dat" chant.
New Orleans Saints fans in Stadium, Football. A tongue-in-cheek reference to much-maligned Saints punter Russell Erxleben, whom the team wasted an entire draft class on. (Photo by Ellis Lucia, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
The use of "Who Dat" as a cheer at athletic events predates the 1983 WVUE story by as much as a decade. Although its origin is murky, Nicholls State University English professor Shana Walton, who led a research team hired by the NFL, said in 2010 that the chant was being used in the early 1970s by majority-black schools in South Louisiana.
In New Orleans, "Who Dat" isn't just a cheer. It's a greeting. It's an exclamation of joyous approval. It's an expression of black-and-gold loyalty and civic pride, all wrapped up in one. It's also become a part of the New Orleans identity. The NFL found that out the hard way when, shortly after the Saints' 2009 Super Bowl victory, it attempted to claim as its own the trademark to the phrase. Pushback from the Who Dat Nation was swift and strong. The NFL eventually backed off. As U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Jefferson) said at the time, "If the NFL owns 'Who Dat,' then a football is round. No matter how hard they try, nobody can dispute the power and energy of the Who Dat Nation."
By: Mike Scott, staff writer
Sources:The Times-Picayune archive; staff research