About Us Insert

8/8/2019 About Us Insert

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Founded in 1914, the Yale Spizzwinks(?) are America’soldest underclassman a cappella group. This concertseason, our ninety-sixth year, promises to be particular-ly spectacular. Whether performing for luminaries suchas John Kerry and Magic Johnson, singing concerts infar-ung regions of the world, or entertaining at Mory’s,the Spizzwinks(?) wield their broad repertoire with care-ful professionalism. Great experiences await those whochoose to ride with the ‘Winks. This year, the Spizz- winks(?) will embark upon not one, but two internationaltours. Whether emptying sand from our dress shoes onthe sun-drenched beaches of Southern California, sam-pling the eclectic cuisine of South America, meditating inthe temples of Bangkok, or recording our twenty-ninthstudio album at home in New Haven, the ‘Winks are sureto enjoy another marvelous year of performance and ca-maraderie. Indeed, these are exciting times to be a ‘Wink.

Spizzwinks(?)the Yale

 W elcome  to Y  ale our HistorY 

  The long history of the Spizzwinks(?) has spurred numerous debates among scholars, but the Spizzwinks(?)themselves have long since agreed on a master narrativeIt begins, as many stories do, with a corn blight in theMidwest in 1906. This disaster, which attracted the atten-tion of countless presidential candidates eyeing the 1908nomination, was impossible to explain. But one man hadan answer: his name was Frank Johnson, and he was thepostmaster of a small Iowa town.

Frank Johnson proclaimed, to all who would listen, that

the pestilence was the fault of an invisible insect named

the Spizzwink, which only he could see. This eccentric

claim would have remained a folk legend had not one boy

from that town grown up and attended Yale University

 There, in 1914, he joined a brand-new a cappella group

that had formed in response to the Whiffenpoofs, who

 while musically excellent, were rather boring, even by the

less demanding standard of pre-war New Haven.

 This new group formed to combine musical excellence

 with humor and a more light-hearted approach to singing

But it needed a name, and one night the group members

met at Mory’s Temple Bar to pick one. After some think-ing and drinking, with perhaps a bit more of the latter

the student from Iowa spied the ghost of Frank John-

son across the table and cried, “Eureka—we’ll call the

group the Spizzwinks!” Later, the editor of the Yale Ban-

ner, unsure of the spelling of the group’s name, added a

question mark in parentheses after the name. The group

liked the look of it so much that we’ve kept it ever since

outlasting both the Soviet Union and Richard Nixon to

remain, after ninety-six years, America’s oldest under-

classman a cappella group: “The Yale Spizzwinks(?)”

The original 

Spizzwinks(?)

of 1914,

 posing for a 

Daguerreotype 

 photograph in 

the cloakroom 

at Mory’s.

Surveying the South African savannah, Summer Tour 2009.

Tap Night 2008.