The first year they sang together in the locker room, their teammates would walk past and giggle. Just a little.
The second year, “It was, ‘Whoa, that’s pretty good,’” says running back and baritone J.R. Lemon.
And this year, as they launched their third season? “They’ve been asking, ‘Why didn’t you all pick us to be in the group?’” says defensive tackle and bass Julian Jenkins.
“Or, ‘Where are the tryouts?’” wide receiver and tenor Marcus McCutcheon adds.
“Or they want to be background dancers,” says running back and tenor Ray Jones, dropping his jaw for effect. “They want to do choreography!”
“But we pretty much tell them, ‘You can’t cut it.’” That’s middle linebacker and baritone David Bergeron.
Yes, even the football team has an a cappella group. And although their patter might be worthy of Comedy Central, it’s their singing that has garnered attention. All four songs. Their style is grown-up Boyz II Men, with colorings of Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Shai, As Yet and the Stylistics. “It’s in keeping with doo-wop traditions and pop,” says Jenkins, ’06, an Atlanta native who says he loves both classical and country.
The helmet-clad sextet—which collectively weighs 1,390 pounds—has an informal history. “Coach [Buddy] Teevens thought it would be a fun way to get some support on campus,” says McCutcheon, ’06. “He asked at one of our meetings if there was anybody who’d like to sing.” Bergeron takes the hand-off and runs with it: “And we got together on our own.”
They hadn’t come up with a name when they stepped on stage for their first concert, at Orientation 2002. “Amon Gordon [’04], who plays with the Cleveland Browns, was our founding father,” says Bergeron, a redshirt senior. “He grabbed the mike and said, ‘Sexual Chocolate.’” Which, in case you were wondering, is a reference to a singing performance in the 1988 Eddie Murphy flick Coming to America.
Sexual Chocolate sings at Orientation each fall, and TBS aired a clip of them during the September 25 Stanford-USC game. Cell phones started ringing as soon as the musical huddle ended. “A lot of people in Hawaii saw it and called,” says defensive end and baritone Taualai Fonoti, ’06, who hails from Honolulu.
Growing up, the group members sang in church and school choirs; Bergeron even performed at Carnegie Hall with his high school show choir. Today, they practice in the locker room after games and sing for their teammates at water-park field trips and Sunday night barbeques.
“When the mood is right,” begins Jones, ’08, looking to Lemon, ’05, to finish the sentence on cue: “we break out the pipes.”
