The Crazy World of Sports Fans Quiz

Answer: The Wave

I've witnessed all these behaviors. Baseball games in California are often punctuated by the crowd knocking a large inflated beach ball around the stadium, with it sometimes going onto the playing field.

In the 1970s Miller Brewing introduced a light beer, and its commercials had bruising football players yelling "tastes great" and "less filling" at each other. Soon (for a gratefully short time) sections of stadiums followed their lead.

A recent happening is the use of TV cameras highlighting a young couple and showing them on the stadium TV screen with the expectation of a loving kiss. (One young male came prepared with a "she's my sister" sign).

Now to the Wave. One section of the stadium (rows between two aisles) stands up in unison, cheering, and raising both arms before sitting down. The next section then performs the same, and the actions look like a giant wave across the stadium.

Krazy George Henderson claims to have invented the Wave cheer at an NHL hockey game in Denver in 1979 after a serendipitous delay in the crowd cheering. In 1981 the wave showed up at an Oakland baseball game and a University of Washington football game; and it soon became the standard "cool thing" to do at sporting events. It made global appearances during the 1984 Olympic soccer finals at Los Angeles and the 1986 World Cup, where many sportswriters called it the Mexican Wave.

The Wave has been studied by behavorial scientists, who claim that it takes only a few dozen fans to trigger a wave, the wave moves at about 22 seats per second. Groups have recorded world records for the most participants and the longest wave in time. Australia cricket attempted to ban it.

Answer: Vuvuzela

Sometimes the noise generated by the crowd itself is insufficient, and additional noisemakers supplement the sound, oftentimes to an annoying degree.

The bagpipe, symbolic of Scotland and played in Ireland and some Commonwealth countries, can be hauntingly beautiful or an annoying screech. The didgeridoo, developed by indigenous natives of Northern Australia, produces a low drone sound when used by non-virtuosos. The marimba is a percussion instrument, consisting of wooden bars and resonating pipes struck by a mallet. It is popular in South America, especially Colombia and Ecuador.

The vuvuzela is a long plastic horn that produces a loud droning noise, and it is commonly used at soccer matches in South Africa. Authorities, players, and spectators at the World Cup were surprised by the amount of noise generated by the crowds in South Africa; and many pushed for an outright ban or some method of muting the sound. FIFA decided to allow continued use on the grounds that the use of vuvuzelas were part of an authentic South African soccer experience. However, the vuvuzela is now banned at many sporting events and some more current ones have features to mute the sound (but not improve it).

Answer: Penn State Nittany Lions

Most sporting events separate supporters into different sections of a stadium. Cynically this is to reserve the better seats for the home team; but in reality it provides a measure of safety for the supporters. Typically, supporters will dress in the colors of their team, often wearing (expensive) replica jerseys of their favorite player.

Oftentimes, the school or team will request the fans to dress in their colors to demonstrate a solid color to the stadium. One of the most famous in the US is Pennsylvania State University, whose colors are navy blue and white. For one especially important game in a year, they advertise as a "White Out" when all their supporters dress in white. The tradition started in 2002 with just the student body, but soon extended to the entire set of supporters.

Answer: Iceland

The Viking Thunder Clap consists of a loud shout and a clap in unison, which is then repeated initially several seconds later and gradually speeding up over time.

The origin of the thunder clap is disputed among several nations and clubs, It came to prominence during the UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup when used by the fans of Iceland. Iceland supporters acknowledge that the cheer was inspired by Poland's cheers for its handball squad. The chant for Iceland's version of the Thunder Clap is the word "huh". Other teams often used a different chant word or phrase, such as the Minnesota Vikings using the word "skol". The cheer and its derivatives have been adopted by many other clubs worldwide.

Answer: Wisconsin

Many schools and teams have traditions for the start of the fourth quarter. The most common is players raising four fingers to indicate that they will dominate the fourth quarter. Oregon and Wisconsin with crowds dancing to "Shout" and "Jump Around" probably are the most noted. Notre Dame's band plays Tchaikovsky's "!812 Overture" and Texas A&M plays the "War Hymn". Mississippi State dims stadium lights and fans turn on lights from their phones.

The most famous and raucous of these is the Wisconsin student body reacting to the hip hop group House of Pain's song "Jump Around". The tradition began in 1998 and has continued strongly since then. The students, most spectators, and some of the Wisconsin football team start to jump for a several minute long frenzy that has registered on local seismographs.

Answer: Pittsburgh Steelers

In 1975 the Pittsburgh Steelers football team qualified for the NFL playoff, and the team's radio broadcast station WTAE decided to devise a gimmick to promote the team. Their announcer, Myron Cope, originally opposed to the idea; but he eventually co-operated with the idea of a black and gold (team colors) towel that was called the "Terrible Towel". The local newspaper mocked the idea as a gadget, and most of the football players were not enthralled.

The Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl that season, and the Terrible Towel has endured as a symbol of the team and the city of Pittsburgh. Fans take pride in taking the towel with them on vacation to takes selfies with the towel and a famous site in the background. The towel has made it to the top of Mount Everest, the International Space Station, the Great Wall of China and the South Pole.

Part of the legend of the Terrible Towel has been the bad luck that has occurred for opponents who have "disrespected" the towel. These include losing games against Pittsburgh when leading, injuries, and long losing streaks afterwards. Proceeds from sales of the Towel have raised over $6 million for Allegheny Valley School, which cares for people with mental disabilities and physical disabilities.

Answer: Atlanta

American sports teams traditionally have had franchise names, such as the New York Yankees, that help identify them. Many of the franchise names are the names of animals, strong fierce or swift. In other cases, they may represent the city ot its culture. Recently, teams using franchise names of Indian tribes have been criticized for demeaning portrayals of Native Americans.

The Florida State college football team use the team name of Seminoles, a major Indian tribe in Florida; and Chief Osceola rode a hose to plant a spear at the start of games. Their band also played an Indian war chant that fans accompanied with tomahawk chops. The school received approval from the local Seminole tribe to continue the tradition and remove any caricature of the Indians.

The Atlanta baseball team was named the Braves and also uses the Tomahawk Chop for a rallying cheer. There are mixed opinions on its continued use, both in the general public and with various Indian tribes.

Answer: Chicago (Cubs)

The tradition of throwing opposition home run baseballs onto the playing field started in 1969 for the Chicago Cubs. Henry Aaron had rejected an offer to receive a milestone home run baseball he had hit the previous year because he was angry that a fan had dumped beer on him. In 1969 the same fan caught another of Aaron's home run balls and threw it back to return the favor.

The tradition of returning the ball started slowly thereafter, sometimes requiring a little financial bribe or autographed baseballs in return. However, it's now reached the point of being a mandatory expected response; and other fans will "encourage" the new owner to "throw it back".

Part of the unwritten rules of returning the baseball are that the ball has to be returned quickly enough that the batter is able to see the ball while running the bases. Also woe to the spectator with a weak arm whose toss does not make it back onto the field. Long-time fans have revealed a dirty little secret to this tradition. Some fans are suspected of bringing spare baseballs in their coats or bags and return these balls and not the actual home run ball.

Answer: Green Bay after scoring a touchdown

The football stadium for the Green Bay packers NFL team is named Lambeau Field in memory of Earl (Curly) Lambeau, one of the founders of the team. Between 1920 and 1949 he was head coach and general manager of the Packers, leading them to over 200 wins and 6 NFL championships.

Nowadays if a Packers scores a touchdown in his home stadium, he will jump atop the brick wall at the end of the end zone. The wall height ranges from a low of 4 feet to a little over 6 feet in height. There have been memorable failures to scale the wall, near misses, and fan assists to pull a player up. This often leads to spilled beer and popcorn, high fives between the players and the fans, and sometimes a souvenir football.

The Lambeau Leap started in 1993 when defensive player Leroy Butler returned a fumble for his first touchdown as a Packer. He attempted to leap into the crowd, but failed to get his hips over the edge of the wall until some fans helped him.

Answer: Cleveland

The Dawg Pound started when Cleveland Browns players started to refer to the offensive team as cats and the defensive team as dogs. When the defense made a good play, the players would start to bark - which was soon picked up by the fans. Two of the defensive players put up a sign designating the bleacher section behind the east end zone as the Dawg Pound, a section that had the cheapest seats and was already the most vocal part of the crowd.


Unfortunately the original Dawg Pound gained an unsavory reputation. Fans would smuggle dog food into the seats and throw Milk-Bones along with eggs and batteries at opposing players. The Cleveland franchise moved to Baltimore in 1995, ending the Dawg Pound temporarily. When Cleveland received a new franchise in 1999, a larger Dawg Pound section was built in the new stadium, but seats were some of the more expensive tickets and much of the blue-collar culture of the Pound has been lost.

Answer: Throwing an octopus on the ice

At the start of the 1952 Stanley Cup hockey championship series, two Detroit brothers tossed an octopus on the ice. The octopus, with its eight arms, symbolized the eight victories needed to win the cup. The Zamboni ice-making machine driver retrieved the dead animal and twirled it over his head to the delight of the crowd. The Detroit team actually won the next eight games that year, cementing the efficacy of the octopus.

As the NHL expanded and now 16 victories are required to win the Stanley Cup, the Detroit management chose to hang two mascot octopi from the rafters to symbolize the number of victories.

Answer: Cameron Crazies

Duke University plays its home basketball games at Cameron Indoor Stadium, on the campus. The student section, which holds about 1200 students, is known for their boisterous cheering, wild costumes, and pranks.

The section is very organized and makes use of information about opponents' run-ins with the law, academic difficulties, and other embarrassing incidents. For instance, they threw pizza boxes and records at two opponents who had been caught stealing pizzas and a stereo system. They are also known for mocking cheers of opponents, many of which, such as "air ball", that spread nationally.

Answer: Curtain of Distraction

The Curtain of Distraction came started in 2013, and has been one of college basketball's iconic fan events since then. Arizona State University attempted to revitalize student participation at basketball games by moving the student body section behind the basket used by opponents in the second half. A black curtain there is directly in view of the shooter and is opened when an opponent attempts a free throw. Then students or invited guests perform in the curtain area a skit to surprise and hopefully distract the shooter.

Behind the Curtain have been Elvis Presley impersonators, the Village People impersonators, Miley Cyrus impersonators, people wearing unicorn heads, people wearing dog masks, people rubbing mayonnaise on their chests, people dressed as Disney character Jack Skellington. Several youtube videos contain better examples of the ingenuity and boundary-breaking of the students.

Answer: American Outlaws

The American Outlaws, founded in 2007 to boost American support for soccer, are an unofficial supporters' group for the United States men's and women's national soccer teams. They are now found at U.S. national team games and can be identified by their red membership shirts and American flag bandanas.

They are frequently accompanied by a drum corp made up of members dressed like popular American icons such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Captain America, Rocky Balboa, and the Pilgrims.

Answer: England cricket team

The name "Barmy Army" was used to describe England fans during 1994-95 Test series in Australia. The term "Barmy" is Australian slang for slightly crazy, and it described the fans' hopeless audacity in travelling all the way to Australia in the near-certain knowledge that their team would lose, and the fact that they kept on chanting encouragement to the England team even when England were losing quite badly. After being called the "Barmy Army", England fans went to a local T-shirt shop and had shirts made with their new proud monicker.

The Barmy Army has grown to be a limited company that produces shirts, flags, and other paraphernalia; and organizes travel to matches. However, the name Barmy Army is still used in the wider sense for England cricket fans.