House Of Pain: Now With More Pain!

Oh dear.

What anthem makes you want to stand up and sing for the Wolfpack? The World Series-champion Boston Red Sox have Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” and other teams have adopted songs to ignite a little excitement in their stadiums as well. Here’s your chance to help start a new game-day tradition at Carter-Finley Stadium. Whether it is a country hit, classic rock or a beach music song, NC State is looking for something that will stir the passions of fans aged 2 to 92 between the third and fourth quarters of home football games. Now through Aug. 11, we’ll be taking nominations for what that song should be. Nominate as many songs as you like. We’ll pare the list down to the top five songs for a fan poll on GoPack.com. The song will debut at the Sept. 6 home opener against William & Mary.

When they asked folks to suggest an intro song last season, all we ended up with was a remixed version of "Boom." So the point of that exercise was... what, exactly?

The 3rd Quarter Rock Out, which gained initial traction thanks to the efforts of enterprising air guitar enthusiasts across the country, is a tradition that's been popularized by the Wisconsin Badgers:

"Jump Around" is played at various sporting events in North America, from football to hockey. A notable example is the playing of "Jump Around" between the third and fourth quarter at every Wisconsin Badgers and Fresno State Bulldogs home football game. Another notable example is the use of "Jump Around" as the background music to appearances of the Rally Monkey, the mascot of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Angels. "Jump Around" is also featured at Miami University Hockey games, towards the end of the third period. The North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball program also plays "Jump Around" just before the tip-off. The song is also featured on Jock Jams volume 4, and is considered by many to be a "sports anthem" or a "pump-up song."

The Camp Randall Stadium tradition almost died before we could steal it; apparently some people did not come to get down, to get out their seats and jump around. A two-year hiatus began in 2003:

Students will not hear “Jump Around” at Badger football games for at least the next two years, according to University of Wisconsin officials.

Fans who sit on the west side of the stadium have “expressed uneasiness” about students jumping after third quarter every year

Seems the senior citizens get cranky when their interquarter naps are interrupted.

I'll go ahead and assume we will not use "Jump Around" since that puts us in blatant theft territory. And that leaves the door open for... a "Boom" salsa mix. (¡Dios mio!)