A variety of college yells, essentially cheers, were popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The first printed reference to a college yell or cheer is a highly critical attack on the newly adopted cheer by the editor of the 1891 Tennessee Student. He criticized the cheer, Rah, rah, ree! / Bim boom bee! Tenn-i-see. The first football cheers appeared in 1896 in preparation for the game against the University of the South. Two, the Long Yell and the Railroad continued to be popular yells at athletic contests well into the twentieth century. Complicated yells began to wane in popularity following World War I.
Words to the Long Yell were
U! T! Rah! Rah! Rah! (repeated)
Boom-jig-a-boom! Boom-jig-aboom! / Boom-jig-a-rat-trap-bigger-than-a-cat-trap / Boom! Boom!! Cannibal! Cannibal! Hallabaloo-wah! / Tennessee! Tennessee! Rah, Rah, Rah!
Words to the Railroad were
Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! / Tennessee! Tennessee!! (three times, each time faster) /
Tiger!