Fresh from Holiday Break and performances at the White House and New York’s Lincoln Center, the Yale University Whiffenpoofs, the world’s oldest and best-known collegiate a cappella group, launched its Winter Tour 2012 with appearances in Colorado, including at Colorado Academy. The group was hosted in both Vail and Denver by Colorado Academy family Jim and Wendy Miller.
 

 

The group’s stops included public performances in Vail, Boulder, Denver, and a special stop at CA. According to tradition, the CA appearance included a song with Jim Miller, a former Whiffenpoof member and Yale grad. The group also belted out a surprise and custom Winterfest invite from Jim’s daughter and CA senior, Alyssa Miller, to her date-to-be, Will Gallagher. (Will accepted.)
 

Every year, 14 senior Yale men are selected to be in the Whiffenpoofs. Founded in 1909, the "Whiffs" began as a senior quartet that met for weekly concerts at Mory's Temple Bar, the famous Yale tavern. Today, the group has become one of Yale's most celebrated traditions.
 

Through more than a century of singing, the group’s fame on campus grew, and they began their search for a name. Denton ‘Goat’ Fowler, tickled by a joke featuring a mythical dragon fish named the Whiffenpoof, suggested the name to his companions, who found the name an apt reflection of the atmosphere of levity that accompanied the group’s gatherings. The word quickly caught on with the group’s admirers, and the name stuck.
 

In the years since, each generation of Whiffenpoofs have taken up the mantle of their forebears. For more than one century of songsters, the name, the song, and the weekly date at Mory’s have remained inviolate traditions that continue to bind the group together. Click here for a photo gallery.