William Grover "Wild Bill" Hagy (June 17, 1939 – August 20, 2007) was an American baseball fan and cab driver from Dundalk, Maryland, who led famous "O-R-I-O-L-E-S" chants during the late 1970s and early 1980s from section 34 in the upper deck at Memorial Stadium.[1]
Life
Hagy grew up in Sparrows Point, Maryland, and drove an ambulance, an ice cream truck, and eventually a cab until he retired in 2004.
Chants
Hagy's chants and persona developed him into an icon associated with the Baltimore Orioles for years.[1] Hagy found the inspiration in his cheers from Leonard "Big Wheel" Burrier, a famous fan who led the Baltimore Colts in similar cheers.
Eventually the team recognized his enthusiasm and let him do his Orioles cheers from atop the dugout.[1] Hagy's fame led him to meet presidents such as Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and to get writeups in The New York Times.[2][3]
"O!"
Hagy also introduced the tradition of shouting the letter "O" during the national anthem at sporting events in the Baltimore area.[4][5]
Since its introduction at Orioles games by Wild Bill Hagy et al in 1979, it has been a tradition at Orioles games for fans to accent the line of "Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave" in "The Star-Spangled Banner" by yelling "O!"[6] "O" is not only short for Oriole, but the vowel is also a stand-out aspect of the Baltimorean accent. This tradition is even carried out during the Orioles' spring training home games in Sarasota, Florida.
Boycott of Memorial Stadium
In 1985 Orioles team management announced a ban that would prevent Hagy from bringing his own beer into Memorial Stadium. At the end of the last game prior to the ban’s enactment, Hagy downed ten bottles of beer before tossing his cooler onto the field in protest.[7][user-generated source?]
Hagy then declared a personal boycott against Memorial Stadium, which he maintained until the stadium’s 1991 closure.[8] Hagy returned to Camden Yards on September 6, 1995 – the night Cal Ripken Jr. broke the longtime record for consecutive games played.[9]
Death
Hagy's last known O-R-I-O-L-E-S cheer was performed at Ripken's Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, New York, on July 29, 2007. He died at his home in Arbutus, Maryland, less than a month after the ceremony, at the age of 68.[1]
On Tuesday, June 17, 2008, the Baltimore Orioles honored "Wild" Bill Hagy by handing out honorary #34 T-shirts on their "T-shirt Tuesday."[citation needed]
On Saturday, August 9, 2014, the Orioles honored Hagy with a "Wild Bill" hat give away.[11]
