Origins
One theory for the origin of the chant stems from Cornwall - or rather Devonport just the other side of the River Tamar. "Oggy" is a slang term for a Cornish pasty, derived from its Cornish name, "hoggan", and was used by local Devon & Cornish sailors at the Devonport Dockyard in in reference to pasty sellers who once stood outside the famous gates. The Devonport marines are still associated with the song which they generally sing at public displays.
Tin-miners' wives or pasty sellers supposedly shouted "Oggy Oggy Oggy" - the response from any hungry miner or labourer would be Oi!, Oi!, Oi!. The chant is also the chorus of a folk song and has always been heard at Cornish rugby matches so this seem another possible origin.
The Oxford English Dictionary (2004) entry for "Oggy" states: "Oggy, noun. West Country regional (orig. Cornwall) and Navy slang. A Cornish pasty. Probably an alteration of Cornish hoggan pastry, pie (18th century), perhaps cognate with Welsh chwiogen muffin, simnel cake (1562), of unknown origin."
Members of the Royal Navy claim to have used the chant, or a version of it, since the Second World War. The 'Oggie, Oggie, Oggie' chant was used by supporters of the Royal Navy's Devonport Field Gun Team. (The field gun competition was disbanded in 1999 after a hundred years of competition).
It was then adopted at British football grounds at some point during the postwar period, and was certainly in common use by the 1960s.
In the 1970s the Welsh folk singer and comedian Max Boyce popularised the chant in order to excite the crowd at his concerts. Boyce was also a big rugby union fan, and through him it then began to be adopted by Welsh rugby union crowds at international matches. Soon it spread to rugby crowds at club level and eventually to many other sporting occasions at all levels.
The chant was also used by Coventry City football fans during the 1980s and 1990s in appreciation to then goalkeeper Steve Ogrizovic who had been nicknamed 'Oggy'.
Read more about this topic: Oggy Oggy Oggy
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
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smiling carves dreams, bright cells
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—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
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—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
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