NBA Etymology: The Opera Isn't Over 'Til the Fat Lady Sings

                                                                                                                    Property of the Washington Wizards Facebook Page.

When I was a kid, I did lots of stupid things.  In the age before iPods and cell phones, there would be instances where you would just had to stand there and wait.  These pauses, of course, provided to the opportunity to do some really dumb things.  We would be standing in line, with me bored half out of my mind and without anything better to do, so I would seize the opportunity to kick a rock or a brick wall.  My mother, of course, would say something like, "You had better take care of those sneakers, because I'm not going to be buying you a new pair anytime soon."  And it's like that for the the Washington Wizards.  They will not be getting new trophies for the foreseeable future, so it is imperative that they cherish the one they have.  The new ownership of the team has done a lot of work this season to recognize the great history of the Bullets, and tonight they take one more step in that direction.

During tonight's game versus New Jersey, the Wizards will unveil a new display case at the Verizon Center to showcase the Walter A. Brown NBA Championship Trophy that the Bullets won in the 1977-1978 season. Above is a picture from the Wizard's Facebook page, showing the newly restored trophy being placed into the case.  The new display, located outside section 100 in the lower bowl of the arena, prominently uses the old 'Bullets' team name and their red-white-and-blue color scheme.

But the aspect of the display that caught my eye was the great quote sprayed in red across the back:  "The opera isn't over 'til the fat lady sings."  I had read a while back that the origins of that phrase traced back to the Bullets championship run, but seeing it again sparked an interest in finding the details.


In his May 13, 1978 piece about the Bullets clinching the Eastern Conference, Paul Attner of the Washington Post wrote:

'Fat Lady' Sings for Bullets

With 12 seconds left, Wes Unseld sand the most dramatic shot of his 10-year professional career to win the NBA Eastern Conference championship for the Washington Bullets last night, 101-99.

Unseld's basket, which came off a rebound of his own miss, enabled the Bullets to grab victory after it appeared the Philadelphia 76ers were on the verge of evening this best-of-seven series at three games each.

Last week when the Bullets led in the series 3-1, Coach Dick Motta cautioned against undue optimism by saying, "The opera is not over until the fat lady sings."  She sang loud and clear last night for Washington.

During their the run through the Sonics in the finals, Motta's slogan inspired some nice t-shirt designs which you can see here, here, and here.  Motta himself sported one during the locker room celebration. But Motta, even if he and his team popularized it, was not the originator of the phrase.  He had heard it during a re-broadcast of an Eastern Conference Semifinals game between the Bullets and the San Antonio Spurs when Dan Cook, a TV announcer for the Spurs, used the phrase, "the opera ain't over until the fat lady sings". 

The origins of the phrase go back beyond Cook, however.  According to the Yale Book of Quotations, Texas Tech Sports information director Ralph Carpenter used the phrase in 1976.  His quote was written up in the Dallas Morning News of March 10, 1976

Despite his obvious allegiance to the Red Raiders, Texas Tech sports information director Ralph Carpenter was the picture of professional objectivity when the Aggies rallied for a 72-72 tie late in the SWC tournament finals. “Hey, Ralph,” said Bill Morgan (Southwest Conference information director), “this ... is going to be a tight one after all.” “Right,” said Ralph. “The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”

and it is a variation of an older Southern US saying that "church ain't over until the fat lady sings", which has origins at least as old as Carpenter's quote.  A good description of the roots of the quote before Cook can be found on the World Wide Words site.

If you're feeling nostalgic, here's a video clip of the Bullets winning the 1978 championship.  Alas, no images of Dick in his classic t-shirt, but it may include the greatest flop of all-time by Mitch Kupchak in the final minute of a close game 7. In the honest days of the NBA, it was a non-call -- just a fool falling to the floor with no whistle. To see the flop, go to the 3:00 mark of the video.