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Lucky charms anyone?
Friday 13th brings all sorts of superstitions to surface
By TED
WYMAN -- Winnipeg Sun
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Dave Crook suggests he doesn't get too caught up in superstitions, yet even he's been known to trot out a tried and true good luck charm from time to time.
Actually, two of them.
"Oh, the red shoes," the Winnipeg Wesmen men's basketball coach laughed.
"They come out for big games. There's a tendency for them to come out when I think we need them."
The infamous red shoes -- gaudy runners, complete with steel toes, which he wears with a suit on game days -- are more noticeable than many other people's personal tokens of good fortune. But, as we found out in our search for sports superstitions in honour of Friday the 13th, just about every athlete relies on some form of good luck charm.
PAINFUL TO WATCH
Basketball icon Michael Jordan always wore blue North Carolina Tar Heels shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform for good luck. Turk Wendell, a pitcher best remembered for flamboyant leaps over the baseline, also chewed licorice and brushed his teeth between innings. Then there's ball player Nomar Garciaparra, who has so many routines between pitches when he's in the batter's box that it's painful to watch.
"Athletes begin to believe, and want to believe, that their particular routine enhances their performance," Dr. Richard Lustberg wrote on his website psychologyofsports.com.
Take for example, this anecdote from Manitoba Bisons football player Terry Watson.
"I have to shake the hand of one of my real good friends right after the national anthem," the offensive lineman said of his game-day ritual.
"I didn't do it in the playoff game that we lost this year. It won't happen again."
Watson sees routine as a necessity rather than an option.
"You always have the same person tape you and it has to be done a certain way, that kind of thing," he said.
"It gives you more confidence if you go through your routine and that means you will play better."
Bisons women's hockey coach Jon Rempel, himself a former professional player, has been around a lot of superstitious athletes over the years and he sees one when he looks in a mirror as well.
"I'm very superstitious myself ... I hate to admit it but I am," Rempel said. "I do everything on game day exactly the same. I meet with the team at exactly 6 p.m., and I always go in to the dressing room six minutes before the start of a period. When we are on the road, I have to be the last one off the bus. I've always done stuff like that."
Although Friday the 13th is the impetus for this story, none of the people we surveyed put much stock into the notion that it's an unlucky day.
CAN'T BE SCARED
"That one doesn't scare me at all," said Crook, whose team plays at home tonight. "(Star guard) Erfan Nasajpour wears 13, so I can't be scared of that number."
Sometimes a routine or good luck charm can just sneak up on you, as Crook found out last weekend while coaching the Wesmen in a game against the Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton.
"It's kind of a funny story actually," Crook began. "Before the game in Edmonton, it was dark in the room, and I grabbed the wrong suit jacket. When I got to the game, it didn't match my pants, so I had to coach the game without a jacket. My assistant said 'You know, if we win, you can't wear a jacket again.' And wouldn't you know it, we won."
Ah, who needs a jacket anyway?
As long the rest of the suit goes with red shoes.