Hey, Virgil, Homer . . . Are you ready for some football?

By Jenny Leonard

HOMETEAM ORATOR—Carl Adair ‘07, an English major, shouts passages from The Aeneid during the homecoming football game. Adair has become the team’s unofficial orator, reading from classical literature to cheer on the Yellowjackets. The last home game is November 4.

arl Adair ’07 began training for Yellowjacket football season in July. He didn’t need pads or a helmet, and he didn’t even break a sweat. His training involved poring over classic texts such as The Iliad and The Aeneid in search of passages about triumph and war and the human drama.

Adair, an English major and devoted Yellowjacket fan, has become the team’s unofficial orator, a self-anointed cheerleader of sorts, who has chosen to shout out rousing excerpts from the stands as a way to rally the fans and psych up the team. He has done so at almost every home game of the season, much to the delight—not to mention puzzlement—of those in the stands and on the field.

The idea is the product of a rather unlikely friendship that developed between Adair and running back Patrick O’Brien ’07 during their freshman year. The two met up in Europe last summer and embarked on a five-week journey to complete the medieval pilgrimage called El Camino de Santiago. Beginning in France, the two walked and talked (and talked and walked) for hundreds of miles, covering everything from life to literature to, yes, football. They wanted to come up with a novel way to get people excited about the upcoming season, and they wondered if reading from classic works would somehow elevate the atmosphere and get Rochester fans energized.

“I had been coming to games since my sophomore year, and Pat and I had both been struck by the lackluster attendance,” says Adair. “So I was trying to figure out what I could do to help the situation. We were joking around one day on the walk that maybe I should fuse my two great loves—classic literature and UR football.”

Adair says he didn’t consider the idea seriously until he returned to campus in the fall. He attended the first home game against longtime rival St. John Fisher and brought other friends along to support the team.

“We painted our chests in the school colors and were going crazy during the game with all these cheers. It was cold and rainy, but also really fun because we were flying in the face of the cold and rain. And people were appreciative of that. On some level I established myself as this unlikely cheerleader, so I thought, ‘Let’s see how the crowd would react to this other idea.’”

For the next home game, as the Yellowjackets were preparing for Gettysburg University, Adair was scouring Homer’s Iliad, putting sticky notes on pages to mark passages that might reflect the action on the field: for a sack or a fourth-and-one defensive stand—Hector breaking through the Greek defenses and moving toward the ships. He sat in the stands next to the pep band. Halfway through the first quarter, there was a lull in the action. Adair summoned his courage, open his book, and began reading.

“I just started shouting it out. Everyone got immediately quiet. They were really listening. I definitely had some adrenaline going. I finished. There was this pause. I didn’t know what to do next and wasn’t sure if people were going to make the connection.

So, I shouted, ‘Go UR!’ Then everyone seemed to get it, and they cheered. As the game went on, people realized I was going to keep reading, and they started to react positively. The best part was to see the guys on the sideline look up, wondering what was going on. I found out later when Pat had clued his teammates in, letting them know that I was there reading to support the team.”

For the next home game against the St. Lawrence Saints, he read scenes from Beowulf to capitalize on the religious themes. At the homecoming game against the Mariners of the Merchant Marine Academy, he read from The Aeneid to play off the nautical elements. “Most of the passages are about continuing in the face of destiny. That to me sounded like the drama of a football game.”

As he reads sections, he inserts that names of Yellowjacket players to make the passages seem even more apropos. Adair says the experience has helped him meld two disparate elements of his experience at the University and given him the opportunity to feel part of a broader community.

“One of the things I’ve struggled with throughout my time here is that I’m involved in lots of stuff but don’t feel like my experience has been as integrated as much as I’d like. When I first arrived on campus, I was interested in going to poetry readings and living what some might see as a stereotypical, elitist academic life, but I’ve discovered that Saturday football games are just as important to having a holistic experience, at least for me.”

What is Adair planning to read at the final home game of the season on November 4? Well, he says, show up at the game and find out. He promises it will be gruesome and valiant, just as Homer himself would have wanted.