Date:  Thu, 28 Aug 1997 16:13:53 -0400
From:  Jesse T Sheidlower <jester[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: Rat=Freshman; Football Terms

Alan Baragona wrote:
>
> At 09:09 AM 8/28/97 -0400, Jesse T Sheidlower wrote:
> >
> >1863 in Stanard Letters 9: I felt quite lonesome, there being
> >only a few Rats left as a guard.
> >
> >[in reference to VMI]
>
> The earliest written use of "Rat" for "freshman" at VMI is in the 1896
> yearbook, _The Bomb_, but it may have been in use for some 20 or 30 years
> before that. According to William Couper's _One Hundred Years at V. M. I.
> (1939), freshmen were called "plebes" into the early 1860's. Some time in
> the 60's, the terminology changed, presumably to "Rat."
>
> So VMI did not start it. :-(

Well, while VMI did not start it, the actual earliest written
use for a VMI freshman is that 1863 quote I posted above.

Jesse Sheidlower
<jester[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]panix.com>