The Origins of "Ain't Over 'til the Fat Lady Sings"

On March tenth, nineteen seventy six, is the very first time we heard the phrase the opera ain't over until the Fat Lady sings. And it all happened down in Texas. Here's the story behind this iconic phrase in sports beyond Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day now. The phrase ain't over till the fat Lady sings is a common one we've heard through sports and beyond, and it is crazy to think that it all happened in Texas, where there's not a lot of opera. But where's the origin. Where did this phrase come from? And how did Texas sports become involved in this? First, let's go to what happened for this phrase to be uttered first. It all happened in nineteen seventy six when Ralph Carpenter was doing a report on the Dallas Morning News talking about the Texas Red Raiders going against the Texas Aan and Aggie's for the finals of the Best of the Southwest Conference basketball tournament, and he said, it's a type one. It's a tight one, but the opera ain't over till the fat lady sinks. Now, this phrase didn't get much utterance after that until two years later when Dick Mada, another Texas journalist, was talking about the Washington Bullets facing off against the San Antonio Spurs as the Spurs were trying to come back and saying the operating over till the fat lady sinks. So how does this phrase that really doesn't seem to fit in American culture as the opera is more of a European culture thing. Even though the opera is here, we have great operas, especially in New York, but it's not as popular as it is and has always been in Europe. Well, it has very little to do with the opera. It actually goes back to church. And there's an instance in a newspaper in October seventeenth, eighteen seventy two where they say as long as the organ is playing, church is not out. Has a similar meaning to it ain't over till the fat lady sinks. And it gets done again in the Fort Worth Gazette in eighteen eighty four where they say church is never out till people get through singing, and again in the New York Tribune in eighteen ninety six, when they say church is never out till they stop singing, you can kind of see as they go they're kind of morphing it into the common phrase we hear today. In nineteen seventy six, the Baltimore Sun commentator actually said church ain't over till the choir stopped singing, And that same year there's another publication called the Southern Bords and sayings said church ain't over till the fat Lady sinks, which eventually got up our final step to the operating, over till the fat Lady sings, which we've dropped the opera part and go and ain't over till the fat Lady sings? Now, why is opera involved in this? What all goes back to this famous opera Gutor damer Rang, which is a story about Norse gods and it's a final fair has the final farewell singing of a valkyrie warrior woman Bruhilda singing is very common. She's had those big horns and it's after this, depending on the version you're watching, can be up to four to fourteen hours long. Yes, there's versions that long. So the reason why opera's involved is because after this long opera. This usually played by a larger woman who we can kind of see as more masculine or muscular because she's a little bit larger. She sings this huge melody at the end, talking about the end of the world, and that's where opera comes from. This it's a mixture of American and European cultures because Europeans don't say ainc and Americans usually don't watch the opera, but it's a great mixture of the two and a phrase that goes on and on into the lexicon to this day that we will always remember. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please go tell a friend about all you're learning about on Daily Sports History so they can join you too, And come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History.