Let’s talk sports fan rituals.
I was watching Game Three of the National Hockey League Stanley Cup finals between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers. The game, played at Florida’s FLA Liv Arena, was won by the Knights 3-2. During the game, the camera panned the Florida crowd and many – and I mean many – of the Panther faithful brought with them to the game replica figurines of rodents, specifically rats. After the narrow loss, the grieving fandom tossed water bottles and loads of rodent toys onto the ice.
These are the Florida Panthers, not the Mickey Mice or Rickey Rodents of Florida. What gives? I understand Detroit Red Wing fans tossing an octopus on the ice – I will cover that one after the rat explanation – and I am reminded of Terrible Towels, Rally Monkeys and other fan devices for getting the home team some extra luck when needed, but what’s up with the Florida rats?
Apparently, the tradition started during the 1996 season. In the opening game of that season when Florida played at Miami Arena, forward Scott Mellanby saw a rat run across the team’s locker room, and he killed it with his stick prior to puck drop that night. Afterward, he scored two goals in the Panthers' 4-3 victory over Calgary. Panthers goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck joked after the game that Mellanby's accomplishment constituted a "rat trick" and the season became known as “The Year of the Rat.” By the way, 1996 was also “The Year of the Rat" in the Chinese Zodiac calendar, and the Panthers went on to the Stanley Cup finals. A tradition was born.
As promised, here is the Octopus Throw. The Octopus Throw is a sports tradition enacted during Detroit Red Wings games that started in 1952. In those days, teams that made the playoffs needed eight wins two best-four-of-seven-game series) to win the Stanley Cup. On April 15, 1952, Pete and Jerry Cusimano, brothers and storeowners in Detroit’s Eastern Market, fired an octopus (eight legs) on the Olympia Stadium rink during a playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Wings swept the Leafs and Montreal Canadiens (in the finals) and won the Cup. It has been a tradition since, and at one game in 1995, fans threw 36 octopuses on the ice, including one weighing 38 pounds. Side note: The octopus – now a mascot – is named “Rally Al.”
Fans often wear team jerseys, replica uniforms with their favorite player’s name and number on the back, and bring bobblehead dolls, toys, puppets, lucky charms and other props to the ballpark. Many wear lucky shirts, pants, hats and attire or dress up like cartoon characters, action heroes or virtually anything they think will make them stand out and give their team an edge.
These fans will wear a Packers cheese head, Vikings horns or slather blue and orange Chicago Bear body paint on their shirtless chests – even in sub-zero weather. We have seen the “Big Dawg” dressed with a bulldog facemask at Cleveland Browns games, Bear heads on Chicago football fans, Bengal Tiger face paint (Cincinnati), full green body suits at PGA golf matches, fans sitting in “The Judge’s Chambers” at Yankee games wearing judges' robes and wigs; and team faithful dressed as pigs, gators, lumberjacks, former presidents, vegetables, mascots and anything suitable for Halloween.
But these are individual things, similar to the rituals of players who eat chicken, sleep with their bats or jump over foul lines. Individual superstition is for another time. This is all about fans working in concert for the team, from rally caps to orchestrated derisive jeers of opponents to coordinated card sections at college football games to fans wearing the same color or singing the same song, all to root, root, root for the home team.
Sticking with hockey, where fans routinely throw hats when a home player scores a hat trick (three goals), Nashville Predators fans throw a catfish onto the ice. It began in the team’s inaugural season (1998-99) to combat Red Wings fans who tossed octopi. A Nashville bar owner got the fish toss started and a tradition was launched. San Jose Sharks hockey fans throw sharks on the ice (yikes ... where is the tuba playing the Jaws theme?). And the minor league Portland Winterhawks hockey fans throw teddy bears – one promotion saw nearly 15,000 teddies tossed.
In baseball, Anaheim (now Los Angeles) Angels fans have used The Rally Monkey since 2000, and it took on tradition status with the Halos’ world championship in 2002. Chicago Cubs fans throw lemons, a practice dating back to throwing them at Babe Ruth in 1932.
In the NFL, Pittsburg Steelers fans have Terrible Towels, with thousands of them waved at crucial or happy moments during a game. It was started in 1975 by broadcaster Myron Cope, who urged fans to take yellow dish towels to the playoff game against the Baltimore Colts and wave them to spur on the Steelers, who won, 28-10.
College sports is a haven for fan rituals. The Texas A&M Aggies football fans are the team’s “12th man.” They get the team fired up at Kyle Field with “yell practice” at midnight every Friday before Saturday home games. It is cheering mayhem. The University of Tennessee Volunteers has “The Vol Navy.” Fans come out en masse in a tailgate regatta of food, beverages, hot tubbing and Tennessee cheering and partying.
At the University of New Hampshire, hockey fans throw fish onto the ice whenever a Wildcat player scores the first goal of the game. The University of Pennsylvania fans used to toast their Quakers football team with an alcoholic toast in the stands – until alcohol was banned. Now they sing a song called “The Highball song,” and throw a piece of toast on the field.
At Wake Forest, loyal fans T.P. (toilet paper) every maple tree in sight on the school’s quad for a blizzard of tissue in support of the Demon Deacons, when their team makes the NAIA finals. The Taylor (Indiana) University basketball fans dress in costumes and sit in complete silence until their Trojans score their 10th point on “Silent Night.” They then rush the floor with a decibel rate higher than that of a Kiss or AC/DC concert.
The University of Wisconsin marching band makes it their mission to send fans into a jumping and dancing frenzy at Badgers football games, playing House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” And the fans, well, jump around.
And there is the University of Florida fans’ “Gator Chomp” cheer, the Kansas University “Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk, KU” chant, the University of Alabama “Rammer Jammer Yellow hammer, Give ‘em hell, Alabama” chant, the Iowa Hawkeye Victory Polka, to “In heaven, there is no beer,” and countless other fan-in-unison cheers and antics.
Internationally, Chelsea (UK) football (soccer) fans throw celery on the field as a swipe at an opposition whose field went to seed in the offseason and saw celery overtake the playing area. Still into throwing things, Barcelona soccer fans once threw pig heads on the field to protest Luis Figo leaving the team to play for rival Real Madrid.
Want to share your sports rituals with us? If you care to share, let me know at mike.blake@mountvernonnews.com.
