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Top 5 Dead Or Alive: Crazy Crowd Traditions

by Evan Sporer | 1:46 pm, June 29th, 2012

Welcome to our third installment of Top 5 Dead Or Alive. In case you missed our piece last Friday on sports video games, we want you to know that this feature is designed specifically to make life hell for our employees. Each week, we’ll ask one of our writers to come up with a definitive list of the five best people, places or things in a particularly subjective category — then, we’ll ask you to tell him who or what is missing from the list. Feel free to be a total dick.

Today, we’ve asked our intern Evan Sporer to name the five crazy crowd traditions of all time. Anyway, tell him what he missed in the comments, email him, or tweet at him.

I’m kicking myself right for remembering we needed to do a Top 5 Dead Or Alive, and then volunteering to do it again. Was I being an awesome intern, or am I a really big idiot for making life harder on himself? I might go with the latter.

Anyway, I’ve seen some cool crowd traditions in my day. Going to a small college, I don’t get to see so many great traditions (if any) at my own school, but I’ve had the privilege of seeing some cool ones up close and personal. Gotta say, the fan element is part of what makes sports great. I’ve heckled, I’ve been heckled, and I’ve seen great hecklers. From a playing standpoint, athletes will always tell you they don’t notice a crowd, and it doesn’t mean anything, but that’s bullshit. A good crowd will always catch your attention. Now, people react in different ways. There’s two schools of reactions in terms of dealing with a crowd; you either feed off it, or you get crippled by it. All I have to say is, if you’re of that second school, I hope you never have to be subjected to any of these crowds I list.

This one was actually pretty tough. There are many great crowd traditions, some that I’m loyal to, but didn’t even make the cut (see, New York Rangers, Potvin Sucks chant). But that’s the great thing about crowd traditions. Dennis Potvin retired from hockey in 1988. Rangers fans still chant that he sucks, and won’t stop doing so any time soon, no matter which team they’re playing against. It’s what tradition is all about, and it’s really cool.

I don’t want to say I was partial to college crowds, but they’re just some much more rowdy and electric than most professional sports teams have to offer. And also, we went with crazy crowd traditions, not just crowd traditions, which sort of sealed the deal on a few determinations.

So without further ado, your top 5 dead or alive crazy crowd traditions.

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1.The Poznan

European soccer is some sort of different animal. It's life or death for the fans (sometimes, unfortunately, literally) and it reflects in the way they cheer. Polish fans started a tradition in which they turn their backs to the playing field and jump up and down. The routine is known as the Poznan. It's beginning to get adopted by other nation's fans, but it originated in Poland. It's unique, it's cool to watch, and it really embodies just how crazy European soccer crowds can get.

2.Octopus On The Ice

We're going to provide a little history lesson with this selection. If you've ever watched a Red Wings game, or scene highlights from Hockey Town, you may have noticed an octopus on the ice. The history of Red Wings fans throwing octopi on the ice dates back 1952. That was when hockey was still only the "Original Six." Under that format, eight wins was what it took in the playoffs to win the Stanley Cup (two best-of-seven series). So in 1952, brothers Pete and Jerry Cusimano threw an octopus on the ice, with each tentacle representing a win the team needed to win the Cup. The Red Wings swept that series, and the octopus became a part of Detroit hockey history.

3.It's All Your Fault!

I've had the privilege of seeing this crowd tradition in person. Boston College hockey is like a religion to the student-body. Luckily for them, the Eagles are consistently one of the top programs in the country. And their crowd reflects it. If I was a goalie, I don't know what I'd be more worried about; allowing a goal against BC, or having to listen to the crowd afterward.

4.I Believe! and

The origin of the "I Believe" chant does not trace back to Utah State. The Naval Academy apparently started the chant back in 2003. But no one makes it sound louder or cooler than the Aggies' student section. To see a crowd get that amped up before a game is pretty cool. Couple that with this second Utah State crowd chant, and you've got an interesting experience for visiting teams.

5.Jump Around

College football crowds can be really fun to watch because they're so big. Wisconsin shows us what a big, unified crowd can pull off. This tradition begain in 1998 when 80,000 Badgers fans were treated to "Jump Around" at Camp Randall Stadium. Ever since, a sea of red has always bounced at home games. The tradition is so important to Wisconsin football that even when administrators—for whatever reason—tried to get the song banned from games, the chancellor of the school shot down the proposal, keeping the song, and routine, intact. Jump around comes in at about 40 seconds