Transcript of “Go to Chalk in Sports”
Hi there. You have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Dina, and I’m calling from New Jersey.
Well, we’re glad to have you, Dina. What’s up today in terms of language with you?
I have a question about a term that came up the other day when my partner and I were watching a tennis tournament. And I said to her, I wonder if this tournament will go chalk. And she did not know what that expression meant, and I realized that I’d only ever heard it in reference to NCAA women’s basketball tournament or the men’s tournament. And I started to wonder where it came from. I kind of assume it has something to do with the seedings being written on a chalkboard maybe originally.
And were you wondering if the tournament was going to go chalk or a player was going to go chalk?
When I originally used it, I think I was talking about a specific player going chalk.
What did you mean by that?
Going chalk, as I understand it and as I use it, it means that the competition will proceed according to the seedings so that the higher seed will always win and will end up going exactly as it was ranked, which rarely happens.
Do you bet on matches, bet on games?
No, no, I don’t.
The reason I ask is that you’re right. Everything you’ve said is absolutely right. It does come from writing teams in the seed order on a chalkboard, but it goes back to gambling with horses a long time ago. And there’s a huge number of ways to use the noun and the verb chalk, C-H-A-L-K, in sports. But for sports that have rankings for favorites, it usually refers to the favorites or the order of the favorites. So you can pick chalk, which means to choose your favorites, or you can be chalky or a chalk player, which means you pretty much always bet on favorites. You don’t do your own kind of order and your own betting. You just go with the ones that the bookies have put up there.
What’s the earliest recorded use of it? Do you know?
That’s a really good question. For horse racing, 1800s. But it’s widely used in a variety of ways in other sports. Just a ton. Anything that involves gambling or bookmakers is going to have some variation on chalk referring to the favorites.
Well, I’m interested to see that it’s hung on even as we have moved on to other forms. You know, you don’t talk about magic markering or magnetic signaging. Chalk still sticks around.
I do the free bracket that they do at the college tournaments, and they have a selection. You can fill in your own, or you can follow the experts, or you can go chalk.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, pick all favorites, right?
Exactly. Exactly. That’s really interesting. As always, you guys are always very interesting. Thank you very much.
Well, thank you so much. Thanks for listening, Dina. Thanks for calling. Thank you. I love your show. Thank you. Take care. Bye-bye.
Thanks for calling, Dina. Bye-bye.
