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By Root 1538 0

15, 1981, in the stands of the sold-out Oakland Coliseum, Krazy George Henderson had a vision. It was the third game of the American League play-off series between the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees, and the A’s had lost the first two. Krazy George was a professional cheerleader, in the A’s employ for three years or so. No pom-pom shaking college rah-rah, George roved solo up and down the aisles of the stadium clad in cutoff shorts and a sweatshirt, a manic Robin Williams character with Albert Einstein hair, banging with abandon a small drum, inveigling the crowd, and leading cheers with an infectious intensity that had endeared him to fans throughout the Bay Area. Most shouts were familiar, like “Here we go, Oakland, here we go!” But this day was different. On this day, Krazy George imagined a gesture that would start in his section and sweep successively through the crowd in a giant, continuous wave of connected enthusiasm, a transformative event that later proved historical. October 15, 1981, is the day Krazy George Henderson invented the Wave.1

Everything has to start somewhere.

I had long been fascinated by the Wave, so I wanted to find Krazy George and ask him about the story of that first Wave. “The day I started it, I already knew what I wanted,” he told me. “I knew what was gonna happen, but nobody else in the stadium did.

“First thing, I hit my drum. That focuses everybody within three to four sections of me. It’s the secret to why I am successful. See, the drum shows energy and emotions; it shows I am personally involved with the fans. I move everywhere in the stadium (I am constantly moving), and I pound the drum. They see me sweating, they see the energy, they see that I love the game, and that I love the team. I act like a fan wants to act, and it releases something in them.

“So that day, I had to tell them what I envisioned. It’s so important to set the cheer up. If everybody doesn’t do it, it won’t go. You have to have almost total participation for it to go, and that’s the point. I pounded the drum and I started screaming, ‘Here is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna stand up and throw our hands in the air. I want to start with this section, and we’re gonna go to this section ,’ and I yelled down to the next section. ‘I’m gonna start it and it’s gonna keep going.’

“I knew it would die. I didn’t know how far it would go before it died, but I knew it would. No one had ever seen this before. So, I prepared them. I told them that when this thing died, I wanted all three sections to boo as loudly as they could. I couldn’t reach out to the whole stadium myself, but I thought as a group we might. Then I said, ‘We’re gonna start on three, this section first; then you are gonna go, and get ready down there.’ I yelled as loud as I could, and I knew what was gonna happen, and I started it, and the first section stood and threw their hands in the air . . . then the second section . . . the third . . . the fourth; it went about five sections and it just tailed off to nothing. People were looking at the game and they didn’t know what was happening. So it died.

“Right on cue, three sections just went ‘Booo!’ and I pounded my drum. I was screaming and waving my arms. They can’t hear me across the field, but they can hear my drum. They saw me flailing my arms and shaking my drumstick at them, and they got the idea. So, I started it a second time and it went about 11 sections—about a third of the way around—and it died behind home plate. Suddenly, the hugest ‘Booooo!’ you ever heard, maybe six, eight sections, came out. But it focused everybody, and they figured out what I wanted to do. So I said, ‘We’re gonna try it again.’ I didn’t say ‘try’; I said, ‘We’re doing it again,’ and I started it the third time.

“By the time I looked around, all three decks in the stadium were doing it, all in unison, throwing up their hands, a giant wave of human energy going around the stadium. It swept behind home plate. It kept going, and it got stronger and stronger. The people were screaming and yelling.