How long have Dallas Stars fans chanted during the national anthem? A look back at the STARS!-spangled history

DALLAS In-game traditions in sports happen all the time especially in DFW.

For the Dallas Stars, there are two big ones: chanting "Stars!" during the national anthem and playing "Puck Off" by Pantera after the team scores a goal.

At Stars games, when DFW native Celena Rae grabs the mic , you're going to hear that booming "Stars!" chant twice during the Star-Spangled Banner.

And the "Stars!" chant crosses over, too.

It can be heard at Rangers games, FC Dallas matches, Cowboys games or pretty much any sporting event held in Dallas-Fort Worth.

But when did it start? The research and sleuthing has pretty much already been done (shoutout Reddit), and while it's not an exact start date, it does provide a general timeline.

#nhl #stanleycupplayoffs #stanleycup #DallasStars When did the Stars national anthem chant begin? The Dallas Stars subreddit posed this question back in 2022.

Results from the conversation put the tradition starting roughly in the beginning of 1994.

The franchise moved from Minnesota to Dallas before the 1993-94 season, so about midway through that first year in Dallas, it seemingly began.

The Redditor that posted the question said they couldn't find proof of the chant being done in 1980s North Stars games.

And even in a YouTube video of a Dallas Stars game against the Chicago Blackhawks in January 1994, the chant is not heard .

Just over three months later , though, it is yelled from the rooftops to center ice.

The idea is that the Stars national anthem chant may have been born between that January to April timeframe.

WFAA reached out to the Stars for a more specific timeline, but the exact start remains unclear.

The timing may be a bit of a mystery to a degree but there is official word of who started it.

Team sources told WFAA the tradition started by a Marine veteran named Don Widdicombe who guarded the Stars locker room until his passing.

Widdicombe died in December of 2022 after battling cancer, according to the team .

Who sings the national anthem for the Dallas Stars? Dallas-Fort Worth native Celena Rae is no stranger to performing at Stars games.

She serves as the in-arena hostess for the Stars and has also been a game host for the Dallas Cowboys, according to her online bio .

Rae, of Fort Worth, was a top 10 female finalist on the 2004 season of "American Idol," and has acted in some TV series and films.

She has also been featured in advertising campaigns for Ford, Tostitos, Chase Bank and more.

Bally Sports Southwest did a profile on Rae back in 2016 .

Rae sang the national anthem before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in 2020 , as well as before Game 5 of Western Conference Final in 2024 .

Why do the Stars play Pantera after they score? "Puck Off" by Arlington-based heavy metal band Pantera is the Dallas Stars' "goal horn" that plays after every goal scored.

The late North Texas-raised brothers Vinnie Paul Abbott and Darrell Lance Abbott (a.k.a.

"Dimebag Darrell") co-founded Pantera in the early '80s, and wrote "Puck Off" during the team's 1999 Stanley Cup run as hockey fever swept the region.

While the Abbott brothers may be gone, their gift to the Stars lives on.

In 2019, the Stars shared the "Puck Off" origin story to its YouTube page ..

This article has been shared from the original article on wfaa, here is the link to the original article.