Idioms For Idiots

The Old College Try



"Giving it the old college try," meaning a zealous all-out effort or to make a sincere effort, first appeared in a New York Times article dated October 19, 1919, written by future Hall of Fame pitcher (and former Bucknell University class President) Christy Mathewson. Describing the batting stance of future Cooperstown peer Frankie Frisch, then a rookie, Mathewson wrote, "Frisch was taking a long hold on his club and the old college try at the ball" (Frisch, the only Hall of Famer whose sobriquet denotes his alma mater, is known as the "Fordham Flash). The phrase first appeared in Merriam-Webster in 1927, and is in the New Dickson Baseball Dictionary.