Hank Stram made a fool out of me

[BBTV]

Sorry if this is a lame topic, but I thought it was kinda sports related.

We've all heard the famous Hank Stram quote "Just keep matriculatin' the ball down the field, boys".

So I assumed that matriculate meant to "progress", or "advance". I know it's mostly used in an academic context, but I just thought that matriculation meant progression to the next level (he was matriculating to Penn State).

Without getting in to embarrassing specifics, I was called out for misusing the word when I tried to use it to mean progression or advancement. I argued, and cited Hank Stram, but sure enough, it just means to enroll or get placed on a list.

My questions are:

1. Does it have any other meaning besides to enroll or be placed on a list?

2. Was Hank Stram just an idiot, and were the players and media idiots for not correcting his mistake?

Side note - I was called out by two girls. When the other guy who was hanging out returned into the room, I asked him what matriculate meant, and he said "matriculate? You mean like driving the ball down the field?" That's Hank Stram's legacy for you.

[The_Admiral]

I think the etymology is that the "matr-" is from the Latin for mother, as the college kinda becomes your surrogate parent. It makes no sense to me in a football context. Hank Stram misused it, and for that they should literally rip his head off.

EDIT: THIS IS A FALSE ETYMOLOGY I WAS MISLED COMMENCE RITUAL SUICIDE

http://osdir.com/ml/culture.language.word-of-the-day/2004-10/msg00019.html

Anybody who has had basic Latin knows that "alma mater," a

fancy term for the school you attended, comes from a phrase that

means "fostering mother." If "mater" is "mother,"

then "matriculate" probably has something to do with a school

nurturing you just like good old mom, right? Not exactly. If you

go back far enough, "matriculate" is distantly related to the

Latin "mater," but its maternal associations were lost long ago.

It is more closely related to the Late Latin "matricula," which

means "public roll or register," and it has more to do with

being enrolled than being mothered.

[The_Admiral]

Anyway the point is that Hank Stram's a dumb meathead jock. And dead. And I won't say this ball-matriculation issue is why, but I won't say it isn't either.

[Jigga]

In the academic setting, to matriculate is enroll. You'll also see it defined as to be admitted as well. Enroll and admit obviously mean two different things, but either way, don't quote football coaches from long ago. If coaches today are seen as blithering idiots with their Master's degrees and training in sports psychology, etc, what do you call the guys from long ago who basically had to show the capacity to tell their ass from a hole in the ground to get a coaching job?

[BlueSky]

This thread caught my eye because I'd actually looked up 'matriculate' years ago because his use of it seemed weird and out of context for football, and on seeing the meaning, I was puzzled at why he used it.

Then I read Saga of the Saints, which has some interesting things about Stram's time as coach of the Saints. He was painted by the writer as shall we say, a very vain and eccentric individual with a huge ego. Supposedly he had a closet filled with hundreds of identical Saints polos because he wouldn't wear the same shirt twice, he'd toss 'em and wear a new one every day. And he allegedly wore some kind of man girtle because of his weight, and the writer described an incident where the Saints' owner, John Mecom, came into Stram's office early one day and saw one of these things laying across a chair. He picked it up and said something along the lines of, "What the hell, Hank, did you get lucky last night?" And supposedly Stram was extremely pissed and never forgave Mecom.

Moving back from gossip to matriculation, IMO he knew he was mic'd for that Super Bowl and was totally playing to it, and the 'matriculate' comment was him trying to use big, impressive words in an attempt to sound smarter than he really was.

[Lee.]

I am reading a book that claims to be written by Hank Stram, yet every reference to him in it so far calls him "Stram," "Hank," or "Hank Stram." I am thinking the ghost writer was being exceedingly lazy.

I will let you know when the word "matriculate" or any of its derivations makes an appearance.

[infrared41]

I thought everyone knew he misused the word and that is why the quote is so famous. Stram was known for having "favorite words." He just liked saying them. It didn't matter if the word made any sense or not.

[Sport]

I've always had the impression that NFL films loved to play that clip because they knew that Hank Stram used the word incorrectly. I think it depends on the situation you're in. If you said "keep matriculating the ball down the field" in a joking manner with a group of buddies while watching football then I think you'd get some smirks.

[JQK]

I always kinda thought that's what made the Super Bowl IV clips funny. The fact Hank used incorrect words, and was quite a whackjob during that game...

[koizim]

Not to take anything away from professional athletes, as many of them are quite intelligent (Mike Mussina and Matt Birk, to name a couple), but, as a general rule, their quotations shouldn't be used as reference points when it comes to more complex vocabulary.