What Are the Origins of “It Ain Over Till the Fat Lady Sings”?
San Antonio Spurs were having a terrible season. Then, during a newscast, sportswriter Dan Cook stated, in defense of the Spurs, “The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings.” All at once, the opera world had a catch phrase and the Spurs won the championship. Although everyone agrees that Cook made the phrase famous, it is debatable whether or not he invented it. In fact, there is a 1976 newspaper article discussing the Texas Tech Red Raiders in which sports director Ralph Richardson uses the quote. To this day, the person who first coined the phrase is completely unknown. Many people also consider “The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings” to be a derivation of Yogi Berra’s “It ain’t over till it’s over”. Since the ’70s, the opera saying has been shortened simply to “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”. It is almost universally felt that the saying was inspired by Richard Wagner’s Brunnhilde from The Ring of the Nibelung. Although it is a stereotype, most Brunnhildes, admitted
