“Who Dey” The Cincinnati Bengals historic chant, where did it come from and what does it mean?
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Cincinnati Bengals' fans with the "who dey banner
Joe Burrow and his Cincinnati Bengals will take on Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI. While many predictions will be made about what will happen in the game, only one thing is for certain.
No matter what, you can guarantee that the Bengals fans in attendance in Los Angeles will break out their traditional “Who Dey” chants throughout the game. The full chant goes “Who Dey? Who Dey? Who Dey think they gonna beat dem Bengals? Nobody!”
The historic chant dates back to the 1980s but despite it being around for so long, has numerous origin stories. Ken Anderson famously told ‘Sporting News’ that it was started in 1981 back at Cincinnati’s old Riverfront Stadium. While it’s unsure when it officially started, where it came from is pretty well known.
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Where did the Cincinnati Bengals’ “Who Dey” chant come from
One of the most popular and most widely accepted origin stories comes from…beer vendors at Riverfront Stadium?
That’s right, the ever-popular “who dey” chant originated from the chants by beer vendors at the stadium. The company ‘Hudepohl Beers’ would sell beers at the stadium and the way that the vendors would let people know what they were selling was by chanting “Hudy!”
Eventually, the fans turned that word into the “who dey” that we now know so well with Cincinnati. As for the rest of the chant, that apparently came from another Cincinnati company.
‘Red Frazier Ford’ are commercials with the line “Who’s going to give you a better deal than Red Frazier … nobody!” Bengals fans obviously turned that into “who dey think they gonna beat dem Bengals…nobody!”
While the car company is mainly thought to have brought the remaining part of the chant to the fans, ‘WEBN-FM’ is also credited with coming up with the rest of the chant having reportedly recorded it and popularizing it.
The true origins of the chant aren’t entirely known but these three sources are the likely origin story for the country-renowned chant. And no Saints fans, they didn’t steal your “who dat.” The two fanbases will just have to share it now as one thing is for sure, “who dey” isn’t going away.
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Roshan Anand
(278 Articles Published)