Osky

[KantoSooner]

At the near certainty of displaying the range of my ignorance, I ask the board to help me to understand a term I've heard, used and generally understand....but regarding said term's derivation, have no idea.

I know how the word 'Osky' is used and recall first hearing it during the reign of King Barry The Good.

Can anyone help me understand where it comes from?

[stoops the eternal pimp]

"Oski" is a word used by a lot of defenses to know to switch from tackling to blocking mode on an INT....I think it dates back to an old Baylor coach

[Leroy Lizard]

Dates back to Tennessee coach Neyland.

[Frozen Sooner]

Dates back to Tennessee coach Neyland.

This. Was General Neyland's dog's name.

[oudavid1]

I played DB in high school, we said "offski" if that helps. "Dropski" if you dropped a pic.

[soonerinkaty]

I may be wrong, but I believe "Oski" is the name of an old, old, wooden ship from the Civil War era.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I had always heard a Baylor coach made it a football term...so I looked it up and this is what I found...


On January 6, 1950, Baylor head coach Bob Woodruff was hired but only after he insisted on a commitment that would at least give him a fighting chance to compete. While the football budget allowed for the 1949 introduction of blue plastic Riddell helmets with a one-inch orange center stripe, much more was needed. Woodruff was a former Tennessee linemen under General Bob Neyland, the line coach under Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech, had risen to the rank of Major in the Army during the War and then coached under Earl Blaik at West Point, thus he had the pedigree needed to be successful.

He brought Baylor to a point of respectability as their head coach in 1947 through '49 and took the Florida job on January 6, 1950. However, he insisted upon and received the commitment to expand Florida Field and play home games there instead of barnstorming all over the state as had been done previously. An annual high school coaches clinic and All Star game was initiated to make for better relationships and recruiting and he was able to assemble a larger coaching staff that included future Arkansas legendary head coach Frank Broyles. Unfortunately, Woodruff could not overcome the increased admissions standards that were instituted because of Florida's expanding population. A placement test and the need for higher grades made the Gators' admission requirements much more stringent than those required for other SEC schools, which hampered recruiting and left many excellent Florida players to attend out-of-state rivals.

Woodruff was best known as a terrible public speaker who had poor media relations and did not particularly care. He was extremely conservative, running a T-Formation Offense designed to keep games close so that his defense could control most games. These two factors would eventually be his undoing. His odd expression, which he screamed at the defense before and during games to psyche them up, was "Oski-wow-wow" and the players would holler this strange scream out when they did something positive defensively, such as making an interception. Through the fifties and into the sixties, it became common practice, especially for the Southern teams, to have the intercepting player yelling "Oski, oski" to alert teammates that they had gained possession of the football, and this is where the expression originated. Woodruff's 1950 squad was little improved over Wolf's final record at 5-5 but the early development of soph QB Haywood Sullivan who was a great passer, stout FB Rick Casares, and HB's Charley LaPradd and Buford Long made him look forward to 1951.

[oudavid1]

I may be wrong, but I believe "Oski" is the name of an old, old, wooden ship from the Civil War era.

thread closed. lol this was funny

[Flying Scotsman]

okay....

[picasso]

As a d-back you yell "ball" on a thrown pass and "oski" when it's intercepted.

[KantoSooner]

Thank you all. Ye Gods! to discover it was from Woodruff at Baylor! Kind of like discovering Benedict Arnold somewhere back in your family tree.

[Frozen Sooner]

Woodruff got it from Neyland.


Woodruff was a former Tennessee linemen under General Bob Neyland

[Mississippi Sooner]

I don't guarantee anything, but this is what I was told a long time ago:

The Oski yell is not the same as the yell of "Oskie" on defense. The Oski-wow-wow yell dates back at least to 1911 at the University of Illinois.

Oskie was the name of Gen. Neyland's dog. Neyland told his players that when a ball was tipped, they should go after it like Oskie would. So, they developed a tip drill where they would yell "Oskie" upon the ball being tipped, and this drill soon became known all over the country as the Oskie drill.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

THAT PROVES NOTHING! YOU CAN"T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

[Mississippi Sooner]

Truth is relative.

[OUmillenium]

I may be wrong, but I believe "Oski" is the name of an old, old, wooden ship from the Civil War era.

heh, Ron Burgundy spek!

Brent Venables is Spanish for Whale's vuhjina

[Crucifax Autumn]

Hotsy-Totsy.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

I always heard it meant "Our Side Caught It" or OSKI...

[SoonerLB]

According to my neighbor's uncle's third cousin's barber's mechanic down in Hooterville, Jahjuh, it originated with the exploits of one Julius Oskibramowitz, captain of a wooden ship from the Civil War era, who purportedly caught opposition canon balls with his bare hands. It is said that he could hurl them back at the enemy with the velocity of Satchel Paige, but that part is purely conjecture. ;)

[Tulsa_Fireman]

JAZZ FLUTE SOLO

[oudavid1]

As a d-back you yell "ball" on a thrown pass and "oski" when it's intercepted.

yep yep. then dropski if the defender drops it

[Cornfed]

I thought it was in tribute to Oscar Kowalski, a little known janitor from Minnesota that invented the rubber glove.

[ashley]

I never heard it until the late sixties or early seventies. Of course it could have been around a lot longer.

[MrJimBeam]

I always heard it meant "Our Side Caught It" or OSKI...

^^^This is it.

Neyland may have had a dog named Oskie but Baylor just made that **** up to be football relevant for a change.

[KantoSooner]

This is turning out to be far more interesting than I'd hoped.

Maybe we can debate the origin of the word 'hut'.

Come to think of it, why the hell DO we use the term 'hike' to mean flinging the ball back between the center's legs? And whoever came up the whole idea of passing the ball from center to QB that way? Father O'Flanagan?

[Mississippi Sooner]

This is turning out to be far more interesting than I'd hoped.

Maybe we can debate the origin of the word 'hut'.

Come to think of it, why the hell DO we use the term 'hike' to mean flinging the ball back between the center's legs? And whoever came up the whole idea of passing the ball from center to QB that way? Father O'Flanagan?

You see, back in the 1800s most colleges were all male, and.....

[KantoSooner]

Yeah, I know, the more I thought about it, the more I wished I hadn't.

[CrimsonCommando]

This thread is, like, really good and stuff.

[OUinFLA]

Interesting thread to learn from. I didn't know how it came to be.

But of even more interest was to learn that Satchel Paige was in the Civil War throwing cannonballs.
Talk about a training schedule :eek:

[76soonergrad]

In the stands, we always yelled "OSKI!" when we intercepted the ball in the 70's, FWIW.