THE FOUNDING OF THE WHIFFENPOOFS It was Goat Fowler who suggested that we call ourselves The Whiffenpoofs. He had been tickled by the patter of one of the characters in a Victor Herbert musical comedy entitled 'Little Nemo' which had recently been running on Broadway. In a scene in which there was great boasting of terrific exploits in big game hunting and fishing, this comedian told a fantastic tale of how he caught a Whiffenpoof fish. . . Whether the word meant fish, flesh or fowl was irrelevant to our purpose when we chose it as our name. Whiffenpoof fitted in with our mood of free and exuberant fancy, and it was adopted with enthusiasm. It caught on with 'our public' too, and the name stuck.
James Merriam Howard '09
