Who dat say he played a role in dat cheer? Ron Swoboda!

When you hear the name Ron Swoboda, surely your mind replays the remarkable diving catch he made in Game 4 of the 1969 World Series.

Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the Mets rightfielder laid out and made an acrobatic backhand catch to rob the Orioles' Brooks Robinson, turning an extra-base hit into a sacrifice fly. It drove in the tying run in the ninth inning, but it could have been worse, and the Mets went on to win the game in the 10th. They captured their first world championship the next day, cementing Swoboda's place in Mets history.

That much we all know about him as a Met.

But have you ever heard about Swoboda's place in New Orleans Saints history?

Let's put it this way: There might not be a "Who Dat? Nation" - that's what Saints fans call themselves - if not for Swoboda's role in popularizing the phrase in 1983.

Yeah, we were surprised the first time we heard Swoboda's place in this, too. Heck, who knows how many people in New Orleans know the full story behind their catchphrase?

That's why we'll let Swoboda tell it in his own words, as spoken to a Newsday reporter Friday.

"It was 1983 and I was in New Orleans doing sports on television. I was the sports anchor and sports director at WVUE. We were in an ABC affiliate. And we did an hour sports broadcast ahead of 'Monday Night Football.'

"It was a couple of years into Bum Phillips' run as head coach of the Saints and he had had a couple of pretty good drafts. The team in '83 came out of the gate 4-2, and that was all that was needed to project people into unreality. So they got pretty excited about it.

"My reporter, Ken Berthelot, who did high school pieces for me; one day he got on the bus with the St. Augustine football team - they called themselves St. Aug - and they were heading to a game. And they got into this chant.

"Who dat say dey gonna beat St. Aug? Who dat? Who dat?

"He got it on videotape, and I loved it. We played it on a Monday night and it started catching on. I started hearing Saints fans saying it.

"Then there were these two guys in the record business - Steve and Sal Monistere - and they took the song 'The Saints Go Marching In' and created a version of it for the Saints with the 'Who dat?' chorus.

"Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Who dat? Who dat?

"Aaron Neville sang it and they got five Saints players to do it with them. When they were recording it, they called me and asked if I wanted to videotape the recording of the song. I said if I could have an exclusive of the video, we would play the heck out of this thing. They said yes.

"I even stood up there with the five players looking extremely rhythmically challenged. I didn't have the New Orleans street beat down by then. But anyway, we created the video and I played the heck out of it.

"We used to do the Monday night show out of a local bar, a different location every week. And this song just took off. It went crazy. We were turning hundreds of people away from the bar. One night, we had the five players doing the song live from the bar's balcony, and it was incredible.

"This was probably the high point of my sportscasting career. It was amazing. It just ran so strong. And it didn't go away, not even after all these years. The Saints eventually took the phrase in-house. They created a 'Who Dat?' club. Now the fans call themselves 'Who Dat Nation.' It's really incredible."

Fast-forward 27 years and the Saints are in the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.

"Who dat?'' was the headline on the cover of Sports Illustrated last week. The phrase has been in the news all last week because the NFL tried to claim copyright on it for marketing purposes before bowing to public pressure. And reports from Bourbon Street after the Saints' NFC title game win say fans celebrated with street-wide chants.

"Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Who dat? Who dat?''

All that was missing from 1983 was Ron Swoboda dancing.