| The Birth of the Crazies (est. 1999) |
| I have been approached on many occasions by classmates and faculty asking, "How exactly were the Crazies formed?" Due to this popular demand, I've decided to provide the story as I remember it. It was a cold December evening, and the founding members of the Crazies decided that in the spirit of Christmas we would go caroling at the home of Lois Zanter(Gail Niehaus' mother, thanks Gail for housing our base of operations!). But, before we did we decided to meet at the boys' basketball game versus Southwestern. Needless to say, while there we discovered the fun of cheering and acting generally stupid. At the game, we had so much fun that we decided we'd have to do it again, and at that game Ross decided it would be hilarious to dress up like a Miner for one of the games. I believe the next game was during the holidary tournament. This is where the Crazies officially "performed" for the first time. During this game many of our cheers and "THE eye chart" were introduced. Also during this game, if I remember correctly, we had three to four people ejected for "telling the ref how to do his job," Not exactly something to be proud of, but it shows the intensity that the Crazies brought to their first game ever. Our team went on to upset the Carlinville Cavaliers in the holiday tournament in Carlinville with the help of an extremely loud and spirited fan base. And thus, the Crazies were born. Also, the tradition of the victory TP'ing was born that night as we celebrated our win by flinging 2-ply rolls at our favorite teacher's house. Don't worry Mr. (will not mention names here), it was all in fun. As a side note, the name "Coalmine Crazies" was thought up by our founding Mad Miner, Josh Ross, and his successor, Brian Hubert, to pay tribute to the best fans in the world, Duke's Cameron Crazies, while adding our own spin to it. The founding members that were at the very first game were: myself(Daniel Willhoit), Josh Ross, Brian Hubert, Aaron Cooper, Jeremy Seago, Mike Koniak, and last but very much not the least of all, John Bertetto. |
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