What's the origin of The U?

[Canesfan1899]

I was thinking about this yesterday trying to pass the time until camp starts and can't remember who started the it's all about U. I have been a fan since 1984 and don't remember it back then and it seems to be a tradition started in the early 2000's but I want to know who we can thank for throwing up the first U.

 

[Dingaan1828]

I threw up several times in the 70s after going to UM games.

 

[whoopingcane]

I believe the first known usage was by some fan from New Jersey at the beginning of his youtube video previewing the 2002 season.

 

[Notsince1985]

It's from the 70s

Edit:

In 1973, UM’s Athletic Federation, the fund raising arm of the athletic department at the the time, commissioned a local public relations expert to develop a distinctive logo. The University had gone several years with a variety of helmet and uniform changes and the Federation noted that a number of major colleges have the initials UM. Miami designer Bill Bodenheimer suggested the "U" idea, which lent itself to slogans like "U gotta believe" and "U is great".

 

[Jedi Master Cane]

The origins might go back to the 70's...but there is no doubt Kellen Winslow mainstreamed it during his soldier rant. From that point on is when I remember the media and outsiders really using "The U".

 

[TwoZero]

I threw up several times in the 70s after going to UM games.

i don't know what that has to do with anything, but you might want to see a doctor about that

 

[KANE]

"We don't care about no one, or nothing, but this U!", Kellen Winslow, Jr (circa mid 2000's)... paraphrasing, of course. To me, this was where it all started. Michael Irvin was the first person that I heard actually say on live television, "It's all about the U!", on NFL Primetime back in the day. Then the NFL players started using it in their Monday night intro's.
The Cheerleaders get the credit for being the first to 'throw up the U'. This probably goes back a long time. I remember going to games in the mid 90's and seeing them doing the 'U' in rhythm to the song, "Darth Vader's March", from Star Wars.

 

[Shogungts]

I went to Miami from 99-03 (the soldier rant happened in that span) and don't remember ever saying The U, but shortly after I graduated, Canes players in the NFL started saying The U during their intros on Monday Night Football (I think OSU players started saying THE Ohio State shortly after). It may have started before then, but that's when I remember it taking off.

 

[KANE]

Kellen's "soldier" rant happened in either 2003 or 2004 after that loss to Tennessee.

 

[Notsince1985]

I threw up several times in the 70s after going to UM games.

i don't know what that has to do with anything, but you might want to see a doctor about that

If you know anything about UM football in the 70s, you would know that many fans routinely threw up after watching Miami play. Imagine watching the '97 team play FSU or the '07 team play Virginia over and over and over again. That, in a nutshell, is the 1970s.

 

[Canesfan1899]

I seem to remember it occuring after Winslow's rant as well, but couldn't remember if the phrase had been used before that.

 

[Dingaan1828]

It's from the 70s

Edit:

In 1973, UM’s Athletic Federation, the fund raising arm of the athletic department at the the time, commissioned a local public relations expert to develop a distinctive logo. The University had gone several years with a variety of helmet and uniform changes and the Federation noted that a number of major colleges have the initials UM. Miami designer Bill Bodenheimer suggested the "U" idea, which lent itself to slogans like "U gotta believe" and "U is great".

While that is true, UM already was wearing the U on their helmets in 1972.

 

[Notsince1985]

It's from the 70s

Edit:

In 1973, UM’s Athletic Federation, the fund raising arm of the athletic department at the the time, commissioned a local public relations expert to develop a distinctive logo. The University had gone several years with a variety of helmet and uniform changes and the Federation noted that a number of major colleges have the initials UM. Miami designer Bill Bodenheimer suggested the "U" idea, which lent itself to slogans like "U gotta believe" and "U is great".

While that is true, UM already was wearing the U on their helmets in 1972.

Take it up with UM, I got this from their website.

 

[Dingaan1828]

I was thinking about this yesterday trying to pass the time until camp starts and can't remember who started the it's all about U. I have been a fan since 1984 and don't remember it back then and it seems to be a tradition started in the early 2000's but I want to know who we can thank for throwing up the first U.

Hold up your hands with your thumbs locked horizontally and your four fingers held tight and vertical. You’re throwing up the U.
The hand gesture was created in 1992 for a home football game against Florida State. Former UM cheerleader Bill Tigano, B.S.C. ’93, introduced the U hand motion for football fans to use as the Band of the Hour played the Star Wars “Imperial Theme.”

Today we see the phrase “It’s All About the U” on T-shirts and overhear our classmates say it in passing, but students may be surprised to learn where the slogan comes from.
John Routh came to UM in 1983. He was the man inside the costume, known for his role as both Sebastian the Ibis and the baseball team’s Miami Maniac.
Routh said that the Athletic department coined the phrase “It’s all about the U,”

There ya go.

 

[Dingaan1828]

It's from the 70s

Edit:

In 1973, UM’s Athletic Federation, the fund raising arm of the athletic department at the the time, commissioned a local public relations expert to develop a distinctive logo. The University had gone several years with a variety of helmet and uniform changes and the Federation noted that a number of major colleges have the initials UM. Miami designer Bill Bodenheimer suggested the "U" idea, which lent itself to slogans like "U gotta believe" and "U is great".

While that is true, UM already was wearing the U on their helmets in 1972.

Take it up with UM, I got this from their website.

Yeah, I know what their site says. I just always thought the story was a little shaky. Maybe they should have said they adopted the U that was on the helmets in 72.

 

[AsylumGodfather]

The origins might go back to the 70's...but there is no doubt Kellen Winslow mainstreamed it during his soldier rant. From that point on is when I remember the media and outsiders really using "The U".

This!!!

 

[dudenate]

Kellen's "soldier" rant happened in either 2003 or 2004 after that loss to Tennessee.

I had a similar rant on the way home after that game too.

 

[CandyCane]

The University of Miami was also known, not to it's liking, as "SunTan U" and the discussions included this as people back then told me. Nobody will ever know for sure too many years have gone by but it's likely the "SunTan U" phrase brought up the "U" into conversation.

It's from the 70s

Edit:

In 1973, UM’s Athletic Federation, the fund raising arm of the athletic department at the the time, commissioned a local public relations expert to develop a distinctive logo. The University had gone several years with a variety of helmet and uniform changes and the Federation noted that a number of major colleges have the initials UM. Miami designer Bill Bodenheimer suggested the "U" idea, which lent itself to slogans like "U gotta believe" and "U is great".

 

[Cane2]

I was thinking about this yesterday trying to pass the time until camp starts and can't remember who started the it's all about U. I have been a fan since 1984 and don't remember it back then and it seems to be a tradition started in the early 2000's but I want to know who we can thank for throwing up the first U.

The U was in response to rival Universities in the state of Florida.

UiFlorida used to like to say they were the U of Florida when they really were only a U in Fl. Flo State had no real answer to that, as they were a bunch of colleges in Fl with Uni this and Uni that of and in Florida.

But once Miami coined the word "The U" in Florida, then all pretenders surrendered all claims to be anything more than just another college in Florida.

Thereafter, winning Football & Baseball National Championships further cemented Miami as not only "The U" in Coral Gables and in Florida, but "The U" for all of the United States.

 

[bozcane]

Old expression that over time made its way into a marketing masterpiece. As a kid growing up in Miami, even then back in the early '60's it was common slang to say we were "heading down to the U" to play around on campus.