Tiger-Cats’ Oskee Wee Wee cheer turns 100

Sat., May 8, 2021
By The Hamilton Spectator

“Oskee wee wee! Oskee wa wa! Holy mackinaw! Tigers! Eat ‘em raw!” It’s about as Hamilton as you can get.

The Oskee Wee Wee cheer was first used at a Hamilton Tigers football game in 1921, 100 years ago. Back then, there were two teams in Hamilton — the Tigers and the Wildcats. They merged in 1950 to become the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

A full century later, the Oskee Wee Wee cheer is still the chant of choice and is a carry-over from the earliest days of football in Hamilton. According to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the words to the recitation were written on a football in 1921, with the face of a tiger drawn on it.

The original words were a little different than today: “Oskee wa wa! Whisky wee wee! Holy mackinaw! Tigers! Eat ‘em raw! Wow!” Over time, the chant became, “Oskee wee wee! Oskee wa wa! Holy mackinaw! Tigers! Eat ‘em raw!”

The Hamilton chant appears to be derived from similar ones south of the border used in college football.

The “mackinaw” likely refers to the coonskin coat that Pigskin Pete characters of history would sometimes wear. The word “wisky” in the original version is most certainly “whisky,” for obvious reasons.

Longtime Pigskin Pete, Paul Weiler, used to say: “I guess the thinking is that if you have a couple of whiskys, you’ll have to go for a wee-wee.”

VIA: https://www.thespec.com/life/local-history/spec175/2021/05/08/tiger-cats-oskee-wee-wee-cheer-turns-100.html
Lead Photo Hamilton Spectator File Photo