Wave (audience) - Origins and Variations - 1970s–1980s

1970s–1980s

While there is general disagreement about precise origin of the wave, most stories of the phenomenon's origin, suggest that the wave first started appearing at North American sporting events during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Canadian sports fans make claims of having created waves during the late 1970s at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, National Hockey League games in Canada, and at Vancouver Whitecaps games, where crowds were alleged to have performed the wave for a commercial in which the slogan was "Catch the Wave."

Krazy George led a wave in October 15, 1981 at a Major League Baseball game in Oakland, California. This wave was broadcast on TV, and George owns a videotape of the event, which he uses to bolster his claim as the inventor of the wave. On October 31, 1981, a wave was created at a UW football game in Seattle, and the cheer continued to appear during the rest of that year's football season. Although the people who created the first wave in Seattle acknowledge Crazy George's wave at a baseball stadium, they claim to have popularized the phenomenon, since Crazy George's wave was a one time event.

There is also an unconfirmed claim that on June 24, 1981, while waiting for President Ronald Reagan to take the podium at the U.S.A. Jaycees National Convention at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, the Jaycee members and their guests – about 10,000 people – began doing the wave. It lasted for about three or four minutes before the Secret Service requested that they stop, presumably because it made it difficult to monitor the crowd.