Koozies Warm ‘Your Mama’ Beaver Tradition for Giving Tuesday

November 20, 2023

Buena Vista University celebrates Giving Tuesday by awarding BVU-themed slap-koozies with the “Your Mama Ain’t Got No Socks” title, harkening back to the early 2000s when students sang, chanted, and rhymed their way back to campus, often from Malarky’s after a Saturday night of dance and fun.

With a gift of $25 or more to BVU, you’ll receive a koozie, which were an absolute hit at the recent Homecoming celebration. Make your gift here!

“It was so funny to see ‘Your Mama’ lives on and helps BV alumni connect while raising funds to benefit our students. That’s the joy of BV. Buena Vista is such a tight community. So many of us have stories like this that keep us connected.”

Bart Smith, 2003 Buena Vista graduate

How did this BV tradition begin? The answer may originate with Beavers Bart Smith ’03, a teacher and coach at Clear Lake High School, and Jon Fick ’01, who teaches in Japan. The duo earned valuable experience as future educators while working together as counselors at Camp Foster YMCA in Okoboji one summer during their undergraduate years.

“When you go to a summer camp of any kind, you have the freedom to really be yourself,” says Smith, a former BV football player. “We were always singing songs and doing fun chants with our campers. We’d thank God for providing us food and nourishment at mealtime, singing to the ‘Star Wars’ theme as we did it.”

One of the songs was, “Your Mama Ain’t Got No Socks,” a rhyme where you roast someone good-naturedly.

Fick and Smith brought it back to BV that fall. Smith remembers sitting around at Boyd Cottage with his friends after a football game. A couple of fellow Camp Foster counselors had come to watch the game. They sat around that evening; the song broke out and they taught it to the Boyd Cottage guys. Soon, it was being sung on the bus transporting students back and forth from campus to Malarky’s.

Smith has incorporated the song into his speech as best man at two weddings featuring BV friends Adam Jones ’02 and his brother, Brett Smith ’01.

“Everyone waits for a funny punch line with the rhyme,” he says. “And there are times when someone doesn’t get it right.”

At that point, other students would chant the name “Bart” in rapid succession, meaning the singer had botched a lyric.

“Oh, I fumbled it plenty of times,” Smith says with a laugh. “All in good fun. It was so funny to see ‘Your Mama’ lives on and helps BV alumni connect while raising funds to benefit our students.

“That’s the joy of BV,” he continues. “Buena Vista is such a tight community. So many of us have stories like this that keep us connected.”