We Are…Penn State! Thank you!

What happened to the Thank You/You’re Welcome part of the boastful Penn State cheer? It seems to have been dropped.

My earliest recollection of this cheer is that cheerleaders would line up in front of the student sections and in front of the paid ticket sections, directing the students to bellow, “WE ARE…”, followed by a directed retort from the other side of the stadium, “PENN STATE!” This was repeated several times.

Then, there would be a short pause, after which the cheerleaders would exhort the students to shout, “THANK YOU!”, to which the other fans would yell, “YOU’RE WELCOME!” This alone was a point of pride for me, tacitly demonstrating that Penn State students, alums, and football fans were an urbane, refined, polite mob.

However, the Thank You/You’re Welcome was missing in the game I most recently attended—the Michigan game on October 14. Was this an anomaly, or have we simply slipped out of the habit of politeness?