Yale’s Whiffenpoofs get Revenge (1915)
Each year since 1909, Yale seniors strive for selection to the all-senior a Capella vocal group, the Whiffenpoofs. The group started as a quintet that would hang out at Mory’s Temple Bar, where the barkeep encouraged them to hang out and test their improvisation skills and have a rollicking good time. The group, named after a comedy bit about the Whiffenpoof dragonfish from a Victor Herbert musical, “Little Nemo.” The Whiffenpoofs had (and continue to have) a diverse repertoire; contemporary, jazz, and Yale-themed classics, and always close performances with the “Whiffenpoof Song.” The prank(s) that led to the 1915 ban on Whiffenpoof pranks is lost to history. But they took it in stride, cloaking their jocularity in drab gowns and satirical funerary rites., Brown won the November 6, 1915 game over a de-spirited Yale in a 3-0 victory.