APB for Card Stunts

News surfaced this week that a high school student in Ohio was suspended because he coordinated the card stunt in the video shown above. While fooling rival fans into spelling out "We Suck" may not be the pinnacle of sportsmanship, at least the kid showed some ingenuity. USC fans pulled a similar stunt back in 1971, spelling out "Westwood Sucks" -- on national television.

Of course, card stunts can be more administration-friendly. A USC website states that the practice was invented in Troy in 1922, though a rival claim from Berkeley dates the start to 1910. Unlike USC, the Bears are still putting on a pretty good show (at least they did two years ago).

The USC site also claims the Guinness World Record for largest stunt at 8,000, but even fans with a short memory know that isn't true. In 2004, Trojan fans participated in a visually stunning display at the Rose Bowl that formed an American flag and appeared to involve the entire stadium.

In recent years, a few card stunts have been attempted in the Coliseum but they weren't very successful. Heading into the 2007 football season, there doesn't seem to be any formal interest in reviving the tradition in Troy.

Does anybody reading know more about the history of card stunts at USC?

Comments

[Bobak]

Awesome, I took that photo at the 2004 Rose Bowl.

As for card stunt history, this much I do know (from my days of being bored in the VKC library): there is an old issue of National Geographic with an article on Southern California that has a B&W photo of a USC card stunt that makes a rather rudimentary outline of a cougar being held up by the tail. I can't remember the exact date of the issue (sometime in the 20s or 30s), but it may be public domain if pre-1923. I have an old version of Nat'l Geo. on CD somewhere in storage, I should track it down and find the article.

[Bill Baldwin, Jr.]

I just remember we did them at most games and it wasn't exactly rocket science. The cards were in order, you held them up and then down, then the next one and so on. As I recall, the only real hassle was making sure you didn't knock over the vodka and mix underneath our seats. We're talking 1963-66 here, so there were no searches coming into the Coliseum.

I do seem to recall one year when our card stunt committee managed to alter UCLA's card stunts by re-designing each to include a small USC in the corner of each stunt. It was a kick watching the panic when the first USC came up. DOWN came stunt #1 and up quickly with #2, which also had a USC in another corner. The Bruins kept hoping that one stunt would be free of the USC, but to no avail --- we called it RFing. I'd like to see the custom return for special games like the Bruins.