The Wave

The most reliable story has the Wave traced back to the University of Washingtons Husky Stadium. It was October 31, 1981 when a male cheerleader was on the sidelines and instructed the Washington crowd to start in one section and make a human wave that rolled around Husky Stadium. The original Wave saw Husky fans remain standing until a full circle was completed in the stadium. The original idea was to have the crowd stand rapidly from the lowest seats to the highest. But they could not effectively coordinate the attempts. The Wave is believed to have started in the third quarter as the Huskies reeled off 28 points in route to a 42-31 win over the John Elway led Stanford team. Similar cheers had happened at Washington State University basketball games in the late 1970's. The wave as we know it probably didn't evolve until Seahawk fans in the totally encircling Kingdome made it famous. After all, Husky Stadium is open-ended.