What does ski-u-mah mean?
Ski-U-Mah is a famous Minnesota phrase, pronounced SKY-YOU-MAH.
In 1884, John W. Adams and Win Sargent, Minnesota rugby players, tried to think of a fitting team yell. They used the word Ski, a Sioux battle cry meaning victory, and combined it with U-Mah representing the University of Minnesota and rhyming with rah-rah-rah to create a team cheer.
The phrase was then incorporated into both official school songs, "Hail Minnesota" and most commonly in the "Minnesota Rouser."
Of interest, the Next Generation Environmental Leaders of University of Minnesota were selected as winners of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Student Sustainability Leadership Award. Read more here.