What Are the Weirdest Fan Traditions in Sports?
Fandom is responsible for so many acts that’d be insane otherwise. Throwing one’s body through an table that’s on fire?
Just another Sunday for the brave/drunk members of Bills Mafia. TP’ing a basketball court to earn your team a technical foul on purpose? People do that too, in Arkansas. Risking a felony charge to burn upholstered furniture in the street? A common occurrence in Morgantown, West Virginia.
And let’s not forget throwing seafood onto the ice at hockey games, which apparently happens everywhere with a rink. Here are the craziest fan traditions in the sports world, in no particular order because I don’t want any of these insane fans to hunt me down.
Taylor University: Silent Night
Every year, on the Friday before finals, students at the tiny Evangelical college in Indiana don all-out costumes and pack Odle Arena to watch a men’s basketball game.
The crowd remains silent until the Trojans score their 10th point, at which point, the place goes mad, and students rush the court.
Buffalo Bills: Body-slamming tables
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Easily the most dangerous tradition on this list, every year, it seems Bills Mafia holds a contest to see who’s the drunkest and dumbest Bills fan.
Supporters regularly throw themselves through tables, but have recently upped the ante, sometimes lighting the table on fire, or replacing the table with an in-operation grill.
John Brown University: The TP game
John Brown University fans cost their team a technical foul on every TP night, when students at the tiny Christian college in Arkansas cover their basketball court in toilet paper and storm the floor after the team scores its first basket.
It looks like fun, but it’s gotta annoy the hell out of opponents.
Detroit Red Wings: Octopus tossing
During the 1952 playoffs, Red Wings fan and owner of a local fish market Pete Cusimano chucked an octopus onto the ice at the Detroit Olympia. The creature’s eight legs represented the eight wins then required to win the Stanley Cup.
The tradition lives on, despite the NHL’s efforts to curb it.