OGGIE OGGIE OGGIE

[Robert McDougall]

I first heard this chant when I was in the navy. Someone said that it originally was a soccer cheer. I heard chanted after a jackstay transfer with I think HMS Dorset in 78. Can anyone enlighten me where this chant originated?
Lately the Australians have altered it for the own.

[tonclass]

One possible theory for the origin of the chant stems from Cornwall. An Oggy is a slang term for Cornish pasty derived from its Cornish name, "hoggan"[1]

Tin-miners' wives or pasty sellers supposedly shouted "Oggy Oggy Oggy" - the response from any hungry miner or labourer would be Oi!, Oi!, Oi!. The chant is also the chorus of a Cornish folk song and has always been heard at Cornish rugby matches so this seems the most likely origin.

The Oxford English Dictionary (2004) entry for "Oggy" states: "Oggy, noun. West Country regional (orig. Cornwall) and Navy slang. A Cornish pasty. Probably an alteration of Cornish hoggan pastry, pie (18th century), perhaps cognate with Welsh chwiogen muffin, simnel-cake (1562), of unknown origin."[2]

Members of the Royal Navy claim to have used the chant, or a version of it, since the Second World War.[3] The 'Oggie, Oggie, Oggie' chant was used by supporters of the Royal Navy's Devonport Field Gun Team. (The field gun competition was disbanded in 1999 after a hundred years of competition).[4]

It was then adopted at British football grounds at some point during the postwar period, and was certainly in common use by the 1960s.

In the 1970s the Welsh folk singer and comedian Max Boyce popularised the chant in order to excite the crowd at his concerts. Boyce was also a big rugby union fan, and through him it then began to be adopted by Welsh rugby union crowds at international matches. Soon it spread to rugby crowds at club level and eventually to many other sporting occasions at all levels.
(From Wikipedia)

[Batstiger]

Yours truly, top left back row Devonport crew 1961.

Bob.

[astraltrader]

Well I was in the boy scouts in the early 1960`s and it was a well used chant back then...

[herakles]

I's now a popular Australian chant: Aussie, Aussie, oi,oi,oi.

It may have originated to counter-attack the singing of the Barmy Army - long may they prosper!! :D

[johnny07]

Yours truly, top left back row Devonport crew 1961.

Bob.

You have just gone up in my estimation. :)