Who claims The Wave?
The Husky's Rob Weller or Super fan, Krazy George?
Who lays claims to the Wave?
By Shannon Love
Who
indeed invented, created and presented the first Wave?
What is not in dispute is, who and where the Wave was made famous
and acknowledged through out the world.
That would be
The Wave, what was it?
Most remember it as a cheer that went around the kingdome in a circler motion. As the Wave neared, you would jump up, throw both of your hands into the air, and yell out, GO! All while the home teams defense was on the field. This was a defense cheer.
Who claims this
cheer as their original creation now known as the Wave?
The Huskies , Yell King Rob Weller and California's Krazy George do.
Krazy George says he didn’t come up with the name, only the act of the
cheer it self. From Krazy Georges website: The
Most
all in the Kingdome thought the Wave, was birthed at the University
of Washington, at a Huskies game by a Yell King, Robb Weller and band
leader, Bill Bissell.
The following year we
saw it and perfected the wave in the Kingdome.
Fast forward to the present, and it’s presented at every sports
arena that can boast a crowd.
Huskies and
Krazy George claim Wave as their own:
The
Huskies, Wave can trace its origin back to Husky Stadium. It was October
31, 1981 when former cheerleader Rob Weller (the same Rob Weller who
once co-hosted Entertainment Tonight) was back on the sidelines and
instructed the
Krazy
George claims he invented and orchestrated the first wave on October 15th 1981 during an
Both
sides have good arguments for claiming the cheer know as The Wave.
The cheer is one thing and the name is another thing.
On a website posted by George Henderson, aka - Krazy George, makes his argument for his claim, as the owner of the Wave.
Below
exerts from Krazy George’s website:
MY
STATEMENT OF IRREFUTABLE FACT:
I,
KRAZY GEORGE, INVENTED THE WAVE. I ORCHESTRATED IT ON OCTOBER 15, 1981
BEFORE A NATIONALLY TELEVISED AUDIENCE AND A SOLD OUT STADIUM DURING THE
AMERICAN LEAGUE PLAYOFF SERIES BETWEEN THE
The
I
offer as my proof the following:
1.
The archived video footage of the October 15th, 1981 game mentioned above.
MLB Productions owns the rights to this video. I have seen all segments
that vividly recorded me conducting The Wave on three occasions. No one
who looks at this could ever refute that The Wave didn't hit
2.
The
3.
The
Krazy
George goes further to provide quotes as further proof:
Weller
was a cheerleader for the university from 1968 through 1972. On Oct. 31st, 1981, he and other past school
boosters returned to cheer at
The Washington Wave began when Weller pointed to different student
sections and asked them to stand and shout. ‘The last time he tried it,
it didn't stop with the student sections.
The
Alumni did it too, says Pat Carroll,
UW's sports information program assistant. ‘We're claiming it (the Wave)
and we always will’ she said.
I
remember during the game that all of a sudden the fans started getting up
and then sitting down, Garagiola said from his home in
As I remember, it looked the same or better than what they're doing now. Our producer, Don Ohlmeyer, was trying to get the cameraman to catch the Wave, but he was always one section behind. He (Ohlmeyer) kept pounding on him (the cameraman) saying, "Get it! Get that thing!" I had never seen anything like it. It was super.
I received this e-mail from a Husky alumni that was there back in the day, and this is what he had to say;
Friday January 4th 2008
I'm surprised that the 10,000+ students during the 1973-74 Husky Football
seasons have not told you about the Wave's actual conception.
After the 1972 Sonny Sixkiller era, the team went into several losing seasons
before Don James was hired.
The student's kept chanting, "Fire Jim Owens!" The students even had
buttons to promote firing then coach Jim Owens.
Rob Weller, the lead cheerleader, wanted to quiet the drunken student crowd from
yelling at Coach Owens, so he asked for a "brown bag" check for each
student section which was designated by different season ticket colors. The 10
yard to end zone tickets were "white", the 10 to 25 yard section was
the green section, the 25 to 40 yard section was "gold" and the 40 to
50 yard section was "purple"
Most of the students had brought alcohol into the stadium, as long as it was in
a "brown bag" so if it was discrete, then it was generally OK.
After the band played tequila, Weller would start to ask each section to stand
and raise their brown bags to see how many students were drinking. Each section
would stand and cheer and "wave" their brown bags.
Weller would say, "how about the green section???!!!" and the green
section would stand, cheer and wave their brown bags. Weller would then say,
"how about the purple section???!!!" and that section would stand and
cheer.
One time, Weller just happened to ask the white section, near the end zone, then
ask the green section, the adjacent section, then the gold and finally the
purple section....
He started laughing and said that this sequential brown bag check made that side
of the stadium look like a "wave"
Soon rob started to organize the wave on the north side of the stadium with the
student "brown bag" check and gradually the rest of the stadium caught
on and the wave started from the student section all the way over to the south
end with the Tyee group..old alumni.
If someone at KOMO tv could find some 1974 archive "Husky Highlight"
films, the old Jim Owens TV show with Bruce King, then you'd see the wave in the
back ground.
Not 1981...it was back in the dark losing Husky days of 1973 - 74.
Since it involved student drinking...I think the school wants to hide it.
Don Motanic (Class of 1978')