My first trek to an international sporting event was the 1997 Ryder Cup in Spain. I remember being stunned what I saw in the press room during the first day of competition.

Members of the European media were cheering whenever one of the Euros won a match. Not just polite claps. No, full-blown cheers.

Now this isn’t to say every European in the room was waving the flag. There are some incredible golf writers on the other side of the pond who define being professional.

However, a Ryder Cup is covered by more than just beat golf writers. And I quickly discovered many of them never heard of the old adage, “No cheering in the press box.”

So I was hardly surprised by an excellent Wall Street Journal story documenting media members from various countries cheering on their teams with as much passion as the fans in the stands.

Charles Forelle and David Enrich write:

Minutes after British track-and-field darling Jessica Ennis sped over the finish line for a heptathlon gold in front of 80,000 spectators at the Olympic stadium Saturday, BBC sportscaster Steve Cram took stock of the jubilation—in the broadcast booth.

“We all stood on our feet and applauded,” Mr. Cram reported. “To a man, everybody in the broadcasting positions that we’re in—and there’s some hardened hacks in here as well…all stood up.”

And another passage:

As the Olympic hosts, the British press has been gearing up for an orgy of hometown plumping for years.

At the Velodrome Friday, Brian Moore, a sports columnist at the Daily Telegraph, leapt from his seat, bellowed and waved his arms each time the British men’s track cycling team whizzed by—every 30 or 40 seconds.

By the end of the four-kilometer race, Team GB had shattered the world record, and Mr. Moore had sweated through his light-pink button-down shirt.

Asked if he realized he was one of the loudest people in the Velodrome’s packed press section, he responded, “To be honest, I don’t really care.” Then the arena’s big screen flashed a shot of the victorious British riders, and Mr. Moore bounced out of his seat. “YEEAAAH!!” he screamed.

Yep, my old pal Jerome Holtzman, who wrote the classic, No Cheering in the Press Box, would not have approved.