Carol Motsinger

cmotsinger@enquirer.com

We know this for sure: It’s a riddle.

In practice, it’s an adjective. Noun. Pronoun. Verb. Adverb. Because it's Cincinnati, it's also a beer.

It’s still not really real words. Definitively not a phrase that can be looked up in a dictionary. But it’s something we scream. So it's only everything – and nothing.

It’s Who Dey.

And the truncated Bengals battle cry is everywhere this season. Technically, it’s a big part – more than 50 percent big – of a boastful question of who could defeat the Cincinnati squad, now sitting atop the AFC North. The full chant? "Who dey, who dey, who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals?”

Well, this year, not many. OK, the Cardinals and the Texans. The Browns hoped to in the Battle of Ohio Sunday afternoon. But nobody else.

So this isn’t about that question. It's about how Who Dey came to be, you know, a shorthand for a million things said and felt in this city. Where does it come from? What are we truly saying when we say it? And what does it say about us, about Cincinnati?

True story: A man gets up from his seat at Paul Brown Stadium during the first time the Bengals and the Browns clashed this season. Woman behind his row in the nosebleeds taps him on the shoulder. Asks for a refill for her Pepsi. His only response as he grabs her cup?

"Who Dey."

So it sounds like Who Dey can encapsulate a whole conversation too.

Let's start by breaking it down, by asking the part of the chant we can definitely define: Dem Bengals themselves.

Offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth doesn't know who coined it. But he recognizes its currency.

It's the victory yell, the team's rich refrain of celebration. The unofficial social media insignia too, the hashtag players use to label social media musings they dish out 140 characters at a time. They even label themselves with it: Three players, including quarterback Andy Dalton, sported Who Dey shirts in the locker room Wednesday.

But it's Cincinnati code that goes beyond the locker room. Who Dey is the secret password to prove you are one of us, accepted by both athlete and admirer. A greeting with more significance than a two-syllable grunt suggests.

Whitworth explains it.

"Everywhere you go in town, instead of saying your name or saying anything to you about something, (fans) just walk by you and say 'Who Dey,'" he said. "I say 'Who Dey' back or a heads up or something acknowledging that I heard them. Some will say it under their breath because they don't want to cause a scene."

Defensive end Carlos Dunlap sees it as the calling card of the Cincinnati's 12th player. Thousands and thousands and thousands of Who Deys accumulate and crush as an avalanche, burying the opposing offense in disorienting bellows. The 12th player at Paul Brown Stadium has been suiting up more often in the last four seasons of success, he said. And has been a star at the stadium during home games in this 9-2 season.

Outside the gridiron, we can find Who Dey Bud Light signage draped on bars lining either side of the river. On shirts. Scrawled on poster boards and painted on faces.

But pinpointing exactly where Who Dey comes from? We can't stay in Cincinnati for that. Or just simply ask the Bengals organization.

Just look for the genealogy of Who Dey under the site's frequently asked questions. Their answer goes to a fan forum discussion on the topic.

Or at least it did: The link is dead. Even if the link lived, this isn't an answer that's just one click away. We have to travel some 700 miles away from Paul Brown Stadium. And to a time decades before the Jungle took root along the banks of the Ohio River.

According to one well-circulated theory, the source comes from nearby another American waterway, the Mississippi River. Of course, this also means we are getting close to the biggest rivalry in NFL chants: Who Dat versus Who Dey.

More on that later.

No matter if you're hoarse on Monday from yelling "Who Dey" or "Who Dat," everyone can agree on a few things here. In this which-came-first, chicken-and-egg game, these yolks are pretty scrambled. But it may be a key ingredient to getting a fix on Who Dey's beginnings.

Even one of the earliest references to Who Dey in The Enquirer's archives – March 1983 – brings up the brouhaha in coverage of a Xavier University basketball game.

After defeating the Musketeers, the Alcorn State University head coach gives his Mississippi school credit for inventing Who Dey during its 1979 NIT appearance. Or at least the fan formula that yields it (Their version: "Who dat talkin' bout beating dhem Braves.")

The Enquirer's own Paul Daugherty agrees Who Dey's forefather was born in 1979. But in neighboring Louisiana. And from the stands of the Patterson High football field, the home of the Lumberjacks. And yes, you guessed it, this cheer: "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat said they gon' beat 'dem 'Jacks?"

In a 2010 story, Daugherty says the 5,000-person town 75 miles southwest of New Orleans ultimately inspired both the big time Bengals and the Saints (only after the Who Dat cheer graduated to LSU's Tiger Stadium in the early 1980s).

So can there be no victor in the battle between which "Who" came first?

Outside the sidelines, both phrases have roots that trace as far back as 18th century Southern Appalachia. It would have been commonly used by northern British and Northern Irish settlers then. Now, we call these colonists the ancestors of Cincinnati.

On the football field, there are, at least, some ways to tally points on who is the copycat.

Cincinnati scores the most points in the 1981-82 season, edging out a spike in the New Orleans Who Dat craze by a mere couple years: The voice of the Big Easy, Aaron Neville, crooned “Who Dat” for the Saints in 1984.

The Bengals’ 12th season with the NFL emerged as the moment of maturity. Cincinnati’s team grew into its body, securing its first AFC Championship in 1981 before falling to San Francisco in Super Bowl XVI.

Dave Lapham was there. An offensive lineman for the Bengals from 1974-1983, the color commentator for the Bengals remembers that was "really when (Who Dey) took full hold," he said. He's doesn't know how exactly it started.

"There are a million stories out there," he said.

If he has to pick just one of the legends, he'll likely go with another major theory. Who Dey was born of beer.

Not just any beer. The Queen City's own Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company.

Greg Hardman, owner of Christian Moerlein Brewing Co., agrees with Lapham (Hudepohl is now a subsidiary of Moerlein).

The genesis he hears the most is that "... beer vendors and bartenders selling Hudepohl at Riverfront Stadium and at bars across Cincinnati began shouting, Hudy or HuDey for the beer name as that bears a phonetic similarity to who they," he said.

There was also something brewing at home in 1980. A popular television commercial for Red Frazier Ford of Cincinnati, which was going out of business at the time, featured a similar boast: ”Who's going to give you a better deal than Red Frazier?...Nobody!"

HuDey beer label back on the shelves

Recognize that "Nobody"? That's the only response a Bengals devotee will submit at the end of the Who Dey chant. It’s the final word of the “Bengals Growl,” which fills the stadium after every Bengals touchdown.

Hardman thinks the HuDey beer vendors' efforts coupled with that commercial seems "to be the most plausible explanation as to its origins."

“I can see rabid fans, which I am one of them, coming up with this in bars and the stadium," he said. "I personally do not believe it originated in New Orleans with Who Dat, as no righteous Cincinnati football fan would claim something from another city."

Hudepohl also was the first company to turn the Who Dey commercial. The chant appeared on the 1981 HuDey beer can. The Bengals-themed beer returned when the Bengals returned to the Super Bowl in 1988.

"My friends that are collectors tell me this story about when they sold a $500 can of the original HuDey can from 1981," he said. "Every time it’s brought up, the dollar amount gets higher and higher, seems like an old fish tale to me!"

Twenty-seven years later, Hardman is still asked about HuDey beer. On a daily basis. Every fan of Hudepohl has also asked him at least once, probably twice, if the company will revive the HuDey beer.

In a way, it's back.

The company just released its Hudepohl Pure Lager with HuDey packaging.

Not that Who Dey doesn't show up in all kinds of Cincinnati places already. And it's on the move.

There is an actual Who Dey on the field. That's the mascot.

What does this Who Dey wrapped in black and orange striped fabric mean? "It personifies the team spirit," said Jack Brennan, Bengals public relations director. Who Dey is a mischievous character, one who tries to bedevil the rival team's mascot. In a funny, playful way, of course.

In 2012, Cincinnati welcomed another tiger named Who Dey. This time, one that walks on four legs. More than 1,000 Bengals season ticket holders named a Malayan tiger Who Dey at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. He was recently traded to a zoo in Kansas, which is extremely disappointing.

Especially if you're a Chiefs fan.

However, the exact history of Who Dey is really not a factor. And that's coming from a historian.

Kevin Grace is the head of the archives and rare books library at University of Cincinnati. He's also a sports historian.

"I think what matters is that people discuss it," he said.

He does know why people say Who Dey, why it's been part of the fabric of the franchise for more than a generation.

Look at it: It's a prime sports chant specimen.

"It's got to be a simple phrase," he said. "It's got to be repeatable." Oh, and it helps if it's kid-friendly, non-offensive.

Who Dey is an inheritance.

"If it's something they can easily grasp, it's enfranchising young kids into being sports fans," Grace said.

Shouting about anything is a natural impulse at a sporting event, Grace said. "It promotes a sense of camaraderie," he said. "And that's what sports fans love. They want to be part of a movement."

Witnessing sports also breaks down some inhibitions. Alcohol can help fuel that, he said. But mostly these expression run on emotions.

"It brings different people together," he said. "You become emotionally involved. It's important for your own validation and validation of your own community ... they are watching something pleasurable and participating vicariously."

In that way, Who Dey would fit right into the pews of a church. It's call-and-response. "You can say a prayer for the Bengals or say the chant," he said.

The full chant is also musical. Rhythmic. Like a hit song. Actually, it's been one. More than once.

Sportscaster Zip Rzeppa recorded "The Who Dey Song" in 1982. In 1989, Cincinnati native and musician Greg Jackson produced the "Who Dey Rap" (below) with members of the Bengals team. Who Dey is also the backbone of Bootsy Collins' 2005 "Fear da Tiger" Bengals theme song.

"Every time the Bengals are winning, I get my phone call," the now Dayton-based Jackson said. So his phone's been ringing a lot this year.

Once screened at the stadium and on ESPN, the “Who Dey Rap” YouTube video now pops up in Facebook feeds on game day.

He's not sure who penned that Who Dey chorus of his song. He just knows how it was it used and how it still makes him feel.

"It's about morale," he said "It's about lifting morale and the spirit."

Jackson's "Who Dey Rap" was a gift to Cincinnati. He didn't sell it then. He might have it on cassette.

In some box somewhere.

Now, Who Dey is a part of Cincinnati. "It’s become entrenched," Grace said. "It's been an identifier."

It's to speech what Carew Tower is to architecture. It's even been part of the skyline: During the Bengals season, the windows of The Great American Tower have lit up to spell the phrase.

When we say Who Dey we are also saying something about the Queen City. It reveals a bit about where we come from, a holler echoing from down in the hollers of Southern Appalachia.

But also who we are today. A working class town that's not trying to ace any grammar tests during a freaking football game. And its wrongness makes it even more right, according to Mickey Mentzer, a contributor to popular fan site, cincyjungle.com.

"It grates on the nerves of the (opposing team's) fans," he said.

See, our Queen's collar is blue. She's got rust under her nails. And she welcomes the kind of football fans who aren't at the game just to be seen, Grace said.

We aren't riding in on a high horse. We are cheering for a monkey that's riding a herding dog during halftime of Monday Night Football. Hell, we are so gritty we tailgate in a cement company’s parking lot, next to mixers, behind massive piles of gravel.

Grace reads Who Dey this way. "We are a fairly close-knit community," he said.

"There are so many things in our life that isolate (us)," he said. "We've become alienated. When you have something like Who Dey or a chant, it tends to break down some social and class barriers because you are all cheering for the same thing. ... It's a building block in terms of getting the city excited for something."

The Bengals do. They registered trademarks for it in 2003 and 2005.

These registrations coincide with the revival of Who Dey once head coach Marvin Lewis took the helm. Lapham said Lewis aimed to align his team with its historic heyday.

Sure, Who Dey didn't go away during the 1990s. It was a bit dormant though. A yawn more than a roar. Remember there were a lot of teams beating dem Bengals in those seasons.

In 2015, Who Dey is a legend with a life of its own, regardless of its parents.

It was born in the stands. Raised in the checkout line.

Then, Who Dey turned 30 and became a company man. An ambassador for the city in its free time.

But you better believe Who Dey is getting a lot more invitations to the party if the Bengals keep winning.