It’s probably for the best that the San Antonio Spurs don’t have a famous crowd chant. If one screaming woman can annoy as many people as this lady did just by cheering during Monday night’s playoff game vs. Golden State, imagine how miserable it would have been to hear her (and 18,500 others) yelling the same thing in unison at repeated points of the three-hour contest.
IIRC, one of the leaders of Section 303, the chant leader section, came down from Milwaukee area, where NSH's AHL affiliate is. He was a college hockey fan and thought it'd be a good idea to bring them down. He started the organization and handed out flyers and the ideas just spread. The chants have been going on for a long time now. Exciting Sports Arena Organ Chant With Charge Fanfare / Hockey Crowd / Proud / Motivated.
Unfortunately, plenty of other irritating sports chants certainly do exist. Here are six we wouldn’t mind being silenced.
J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets!
The New York Jets’ 2012 season went so poorly that even its official mascot, “Fireman Ed” Anzalone, resigned as a superfan after the infamous Mark Sanchez “buttfumble” game in November. It’s too early to tell if Anzalone will have reconsidered his decision in time to lead this chant again in 2013. We hope he hasn’t.
Florida State Seminoles War Chant/Atlanta Braves “Tomahawk Chop”
The modern version of the Seminoles “war chant” started in the mid ’80s after the crowd adapted part of a traditional fight song the school’s marching band had been playing for decades. The version the Atlanta Braves started in the early ’90s was stolen directly from the Seminoles, which wasn’t the first time something like that had happened. Most of the fans who do the chant and its accompanying hatchet gesture aren’t doing it with any malice (except toward opposing teams), but it does seem like a bit of an outdated racial stereotype that we could do without, right?
Ole! Ole! Ole! Ole!
Rumored to have started in Spanish soccer stadiums almost 30 years ago, this chant can now be heard at soccer and football games all over the world, not to mention Montreal Canadiens hockey games. I suppose chanting in Spanish is one way for fans to come together without arguing over whether French or English should be the city’s official language.
S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C!
Yes, SEC teams have won the past seven BCS National Championship games. There’s no doubt that the conference is the most dominant in college football right now. But why do its teams insist on chanting the name of the entire conference rather than ones pertaining to their own schools? You can almost understand Alabama fans taunting Notre Dame fans during January’s title game blowout. But reports of Vanderbilt fans yelling it after a Music City Bowl win against North Carolina State? That’s like Eddy Curry bragging about his NBA championship ring with the Miami Heat last year.
Yankee Stadium Roll Call
For New York Yankees fans, the roll call originating from the section 203 “Bleacher Creatures” is a cool acknowledgement of the team’s starting nine fielders. For fans of other teams, the repeated chants of “DEREK JETER!” along with eight other players only adds to the Yankee hate. We actually don’t want to see this one silenced. Having to hear the names “LYLE OVERBAY” and “EDUARDO NUNEZ” yelled out loud while Mark Teixeira and Jeter are sidelined should be enough to make them reflect on whether it’s a good idea to do this before EVERY game.
Seven Nation Army
In January 2012, Deadspin published a story detailing how the opening riff of the anthemic White Stripes song suddenly became ubiquitous at stadiums all over the country. Soon the chant was everywhere, with college stadiums at Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State adopting it as well as the Baltimore Ravens, international soccer and NBA teams. And that’s the problem. For as awesome as this chant would be in an isolated instance, what good it is if three of the oldest rivals in the Big Ten are all using the same exercise to fire up their stadiums?
Ohio State version
Penn State version
Hockey Crowd Chants Game
Baltimore Ravens version