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Origin of Throwing up The "U"

JeffreyG

JeffreyG

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I know this has been discussed before of when we 1st saw someone make the U hands gesture. I'm rewatching Miami FSU 1987 and see a cheerleader make the U with their hands. I didn't know it went back that far.
 
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I don't recall it being a fan thing until after at least 95.
 
JeffreyG said:
I know this has been discussed before of when we 1st saw someone make the U hands gesture. I'm rewatching Miami FSU 1987 and see a cheerleader make the U with their hands. I didn't know it went back that far.
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Are you sure that is the 1987 (away) game and not the 1988 (home) game?

Michael Irvin frequently did a "U" where he put his thumbs together and then held up his index fingers, as if he was making a goalpost for paper football.

When F$U would do their warchant (which was originally just for offensive possessions), Miami fans would respond to the tomahawk chop with either a one-handed or a two-handed chop with extended middle finger(s). This gesture frequently made it into the TV broadcasts.

Tad Foote and others were not happy. I believe that Bill Tigano (a former cheerleader) claims that he came up with the "U" hand symbol in 1992, and I think that his claim is that it's the "thumbs together plus all fingers upright" version. There is a Miami Hurricane article that credits a UM student back in 1984:

https://www.themiamihurricane.com/2014/11/12/fsu-game-inspired-first-man-to-throw-up-the-u/

Clearly, between 1984 and 1992, the "U" hand gesture began to grow and mutate.

There's a reason why I don't believe Bill Tigano's claim. I was an undergrad at Miami from 1986 to 1991 (graduated in 5 years after switching from Engineering to Business). One of my best friends was in the Band of the Hour. When we were playing in the Orange Bowl (86, 88, 90, 92, etc.), our band's response to the Warchant was to play the Imperial Death March from Star Wars. And Connie Nickel (the administrator who led the cheerleading teams) instructed all of the cheerleaders to have the student section do the "U" hand gesture during the playing of the Imperial Death March.

It was, literally, an attempt to get the student section to do something with their hands instead of extending their middle fingers for the Tomahawk Chop, particularly since UM had a partnership with the Seminole Indians (Iron Arrow, UM's Highest Honor Attainable) since the 1930s.

So Bill Tigano may have been photographed doing the "U" hand gesture in 1992, but I specifically remember the cheerleaders (particularly Val, who was more imposing than Bill) trying to convince the drunken student section to do the "U" while the Band played the Imperial Death March...BEFORE 1992.

And, sure, I was heavily inebriated for most of those games, but I'm fairly certain of my recall on this issue.
 
It was probably done occasionally before this, but I think of these being the points that started it becoming a common and popular thing:

Calling Miami "The U" - after Kellen Winslow's soldier speech
Throwing up "The U" - after Ryan Moore did it after scoring a TD
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
Are you sure that is the 1987 (away) game and not the 1988 (home) game?

Michael Irvin frequently did a "U" where he put his thumbs together and then held up his index fingers, as if he was making a goalpost for paper football.

When F$U would do their warchant (which was originally just for offensive possessions), Miami fans would respond to the tomahawk chop with either a one-handed or a two-handed chop with extended middle finger(s). This gesture frequently made it into the TV broadcasts.

Tad Foote and others were not happy. I believe that Bill Tigano (a former cheerleader) claims that he came up with the "U" hand symbol in 1992, and I think that his claim is that it's the "thumbs together plus all fingers upright" version. There is a Miami Hurricane article that credits a UM student back in 1984:

https://www.themiamihurricane.com/2014/11/12/fsu-game-inspired-first-man-to-throw-up-the-u/

Clearly, between 1984 and 1992, the "U" hand gesture began to grow and mutate.

There's a reason why I don't believe Bill Tigano's claim. I was an undergrad at Miami from 1986 to 1991 (graduated in 5 years after switching from Engineering to Business). One of my best friends was in the Band of the Hour. When we were playing in the Orange Bowl (86, 88, 90, 92, etc.), our band's response to the Warchant was to play the Imperial Death March from Star Wars. And Connie Nickel (the administrator who led the cheerleading teams) instructed all of the cheerleaders to have the student section do the "U" hand gesture during the playing of the Imperial Death March.

It was, literally, an attempt to get the student section to do something with their hands instead of extending their middle fingers for the Tomahawk Chop, particularly since UM had a partnership with the Seminole Indians (Iron Arrow, UM's Highest Honor Attainable) since the 1930s.

So Bill Tigano may have been photographed doing the "U" hand gesture in 1992, but I specifically remember the cheerleaders (particularly Val, who was more imposing than Bill) trying to convince the drunken student section to do the "U" while the Band played the Imperial Death March...BEFORE 1992.

And, sure, I was heavily inebriated for most of those games, but I'm fairly certain of my recall on this issue.
Click to expand...
Yeah this was 87 in Tallahassee. It is before the game starts on the CBS broadcast after John Dockery reports on the field about Bennie and the Jets.
 
JD08 said:
I don't recall it being a fan thing until after at least 95.
Click to expand...
I remember in 1992 The cheerleaders and fans in the student section would throw up the U and and move it up and down to the beat of the Star Wars imperial march.
 
bshaw28 said:
It was probably done occasionally before this, but I think of these being the points that started it becoming a common and popular thing:

Calling Miami "The U" - after Kellen Winslow's soldier speech
Throwing up "The U" - after Ryan Moore did it after scoring a TD
Click to expand...
been going to games since 1989 and this is how i see it. used to sit in the student section and do not remember ever seeing a U thrown up. i recall the star wars thing being more of a bowing with the hands from the empire strikes back.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
Are you sure that is the 1987 (away) game and not the 1988 (home) game?

Michael Irvin frequently did a "U" where he put his thumbs together and then held up his index fingers, as if he was making a goalpost for paper football.

When F$U would do their warchant (which was originally just for offensive possessions), Miami fans would respond to the tomahawk chop with either a one-handed or a two-handed chop with extended middle finger(s). This gesture frequently made it into the TV broadcasts.

Tad Foote and others were not happy. I believe that Bill Tigano (a former cheerleader) claims that he came up with the "U" hand symbol in 1992, and I think that his claim is that it's the "thumbs together plus all fingers upright" version. There is a Miami Hurricane article that credits a UM student back in 1984:

https://www.themiamihurricane.com/2014/11/12/fsu-game-inspired-first-man-to-throw-up-the-u/

Clearly, between 1984 and 1992, the "U" hand gesture began to grow and mutate.

There's a reason why I don't believe Bill Tigano's claim. I was an undergrad at Miami from 1986 to 1991 (graduated in 5 years after switching from Engineering to Business). One of my best friends was in the Band of the Hour. When we were playing in the Orange Bowl (86, 88, 90, 92, etc.), our band's response to the Warchant was to play the Imperial Death March from Star Wars. And Connie Nickel (the administrator who led the cheerleading teams) instructed all of the cheerleaders to have the student section do the "U" hand gesture during the playing of the Imperial Death March.

It was, literally, an attempt to get the student section to do something with their hands instead of extending their middle fingers for the Tomahawk Chop, particularly since UM had a partnership with the Seminole Indians (Iron Arrow, UM's Highest Honor Attainable) since the 1930s.

So Bill Tigano may have been photographed doing the "U" hand gesture in 1992, but I specifically remember the cheerleaders (particularly Val, who was more imposing than Bill) trying to convince the drunken student section to do the "U" while the Band played the Imperial Death March...BEFORE 1992.

And, sure, I was heavily inebriated for most of those games, but I'm fairly certain of my recall on this issue.
Click to expand...
Try getting heavily inebriated again, sometimes it aids in the recall of conversations and events that took place while in that state.
 
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See I have been watching Canes games since 1986 and I don't remember seeing it til around 1999 or so . I think I first saw it when Santana Moss and Ed Reed and others would throw it up after scoring during that historic run. It could of been around earlier but never saw it .
 
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