I know some of you were there to witness these events, but just for clarity and posterity, would someone be willing to recount the tale of the days when Louie, Louie would be played and the upper deck would sway? As I understand it, the song was banned from the stadium as a result f safety concerns?
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The "Swayin" tale
- Thread starter cocky0
- Start date
I didn't go to any games around then, but was a kid and it was definitely all over the local news. The resonant frequency of the upper deck matched the tempo of Louie, Louie, the crowd would start jumping and the deck started swaying. The University claimed it was safe yet people freaked the F out, they banned the band to play the song, and then in the off season reinforced the deck.
I'm sure some old timers have personal accounts. Were is Swayin'.
I'm sure some old timers have personal accounts. Were is Swayin'.
Gamerooster
Member
I think Louie, Louie got the blame but wasn't the culprit. The swaying started in 1983 but I think it peaked at the 1984 Florida State game. Crowd noise peaked during Raynard Brown's 99 kickoff return to open the second half. The east upper deck would vibrate from people cheering and jumping around but back then they had most of the students in the east upper and they figured out that when they all jumped together with the right timing they would cause waves to move through the deck. It was much more than a vibration. The seats of older fans sitting away from the students would move enough to make some of those old fans fall and to big donor fans in the 400 level it looked like the deck was about to collapse. Some of these big donors said they left the game (which was the biggest victory in history at the time) because of the deck movement and they wouldn't be back. They also said it happened when the band played Louie, Louie. There were other songs that would get the students jumping but some of those old fans probably didn't like the song and it got the blame. Officials banned Louie, Louie; moved the students back to the lower level and within a couple years added reinforcements to dampen the movement. The deck still vibrates when games get exciting today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVvS5-pc71w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVvS5-pc71w
FurmanCock
Grand Poohbah
Thanks for posting the link to the game...I had completely forgotten about the 14 second half turnovers (9 for FSU and 5 for SC). I don't ever remember that many turnovers in a game, much less just a half.
And of course, the next game was Navy.
Went to the FSU game as a student.
Walked to W-B from the Towers along the railroad tracks by the P.E. fields then cut across to the stadium. We sat in the East Upper section, but I don't remember it swaying where we were sitting and I stayed for the whole game. I believe that was the only game I went to that year because the lines for the student tickets were so long I would have had to cut class to stand in line and I didn't want to do that. I may have gone to another game earlier in the season, but I can't remember it if I did.
I think it must have been more the effect on the surrounding sections, but I don't know. I think there was movement, but it was so far away that we didn't notice it and only heard about it the next week.
We walked to the game then I hooked up with some other friends and walked with them to a party somewhere in Olympia. There was beer. Somehow we made it back to the dorm, but I don't remember much after the game. LOL
Swayin'? Yep. Good times.
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I was about to add what Jim G. posted in the pic above, as a student from '83-'87, there was one resonant quote from Coach Joe about the whole thing: he said "If it ain't swayin,' we ain't playin.'" And that was that - it instantly passed into Gamecock lore. And yes, that sumbitch felt like a broken carny ride when it got going, especially when combined the ludicrous amounts of booze we were slinging down our throats on top of it all.
And "Louie Louie" got some of the blame, but if I remember correctly a huge part of the blame was also put onto the "Low Brass Cheer," the instrumental by The Mighty Sound of the Southeast (USC band) that ended in a thunderous cheer from the faithful of " ... We're Going to Beat the Hell Outta YOU ...", with each word of the ending punctuated by stomping and a Sandstorm-esque pumping of our arms into the air and pointing at the the other team. Word came down that the shrinking violets in the alumni section were HORRIFIED at the use of the word "hell" but I think its ability to shake the deck like nobody's business also added up to it being nixed.
And "Louie Louie" got some of the blame, but if I remember correctly a huge part of the blame was also put onto the "Low Brass Cheer," the instrumental by The Mighty Sound of the Southeast (USC band) that ended in a thunderous cheer from the faithful of " ... We're Going to Beat the Hell Outta YOU ...", with each word of the ending punctuated by stomping and a Sandstorm-esque pumping of our arms into the air and pointing at the the other team. Word came down that the shrinking violets in the alumni section were HORRIFIED at the use of the word "hell" but I think its ability to shake the deck like nobody's business also added up to it being nixed.
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SanAntonioCock
GCF Top Poster
I was a freshman in '87 and the band had started playing "Louie,Louie" again but the students were all packed into to the end zone for the most part. The end zone opposite of where the students are today.
sguilfoyle
Member
The Low Brass Cheer wasn't banned right away.
My recollection on "the Sway" is this.
First observed when we played Southern Cal in 1983. A win, BTW.
When the Sway was noticed that 5-6 season, the press asked Joe Morrison about it, and that is when he said the memorable, "Well, if it ain't swaying, we ain't playing."
It was said early enough that season that the phrase was put on bumper stickers and might have been the slogan for the team's season, which ... there weren't many such preseason slogans back in the day.
But I think it laid the groundwork for the excitement that became the Black Magic season of 1984. A season which almost ended in disaster. We opened with the Citadel, and true to form, they had us on the ropes. It was, I think, the only game I was able to attend that season. I was a freshman and I went in block seating with some guys from my dorm. I didn't know much about football at all, but had heard of a "trick" play.
Sitting in the East Uppers, I said to whomever was next to me, "We ought to try a halfback option pass so we can score here."
True to form that season, Joe Morrison called a halfback option on the very next play and I think it went for a TD. My dorm buddies thought I knew my stuff.
Anyway, there was no swaying that game.
Once we started rolling (probably with the win over Georgia early enough to be, as it always is, the bellweather of our season, the sway started getting noticed a bit more.
Louie, Louie got blamed for the Sway. Student seating had them on the edge of the East Upper, toward the South side, and up from there. My seats were UP from there against the Citadel. But when they just started dancing to Louie, Louie, the sway started. The Wave was a big thing back in the day too.
Anyway, some of the higher priced donors who had decent seating UNDER the East upper decks noticed the hell out of it and started complaining. When the Low Brass Cheer was thrown in the mix, some of the more prudish high priced donors complained about the oh so offensive use of the word "hell."
There were complaints on two fronts.
It didn't result in outright ban. I remember, because I wrote aobut it in The Gamecock, in a column. I wasn't a columnist until the fall of 1986.
The most interesting thing about The Sway was they actually tested it. They got some engineers from ... ahem ... Georgia Tech who had lasers and pointed them at a line on the East Upper and they got engineering students to sit in the Upper Deck and make it sway, to measure it. The actual results were, hard construction projects need to have a natural amount of sway built in to them to allow for temperature variations and high wind fluctuations. (See the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse in the 1950s. The Bridge was built HARD without a natural sway and the winds just made it sway despite that, until it collapsed.)
The said that the observed sway was thought to be within design tolerances, but also, MAKING it sway might not be the best thing. In other words, any excuse to make the donors happy.
If I can dig up my columns about the ban on Louie, Louie.
My recollection on "the Sway" is this.
First observed when we played Southern Cal in 1983. A win, BTW.
When the Sway was noticed that 5-6 season, the press asked Joe Morrison about it, and that is when he said the memorable, "Well, if it ain't swaying, we ain't playing."
It was said early enough that season that the phrase was put on bumper stickers and might have been the slogan for the team's season, which ... there weren't many such preseason slogans back in the day.
But I think it laid the groundwork for the excitement that became the Black Magic season of 1984. A season which almost ended in disaster. We opened with the Citadel, and true to form, they had us on the ropes. It was, I think, the only game I was able to attend that season. I was a freshman and I went in block seating with some guys from my dorm. I didn't know much about football at all, but had heard of a "trick" play.
Sitting in the East Uppers, I said to whomever was next to me, "We ought to try a halfback option pass so we can score here."
True to form that season, Joe Morrison called a halfback option on the very next play and I think it went for a TD. My dorm buddies thought I knew my stuff.
Anyway, there was no swaying that game.
Once we started rolling (probably with the win over Georgia early enough to be, as it always is, the bellweather of our season, the sway started getting noticed a bit more.
Louie, Louie got blamed for the Sway. Student seating had them on the edge of the East Upper, toward the South side, and up from there. My seats were UP from there against the Citadel. But when they just started dancing to Louie, Louie, the sway started. The Wave was a big thing back in the day too.
Anyway, some of the higher priced donors who had decent seating UNDER the East upper decks noticed the hell out of it and started complaining. When the Low Brass Cheer was thrown in the mix, some of the more prudish high priced donors complained about the oh so offensive use of the word "hell."
There were complaints on two fronts.
It didn't result in outright ban. I remember, because I wrote aobut it in The Gamecock, in a column. I wasn't a columnist until the fall of 1986.
The most interesting thing about The Sway was they actually tested it. They got some engineers from ... ahem ... Georgia Tech who had lasers and pointed them at a line on the East Upper and they got engineering students to sit in the Upper Deck and make it sway, to measure it. The actual results were, hard construction projects need to have a natural amount of sway built in to them to allow for temperature variations and high wind fluctuations. (See the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse in the 1950s. The Bridge was built HARD without a natural sway and the winds just made it sway despite that, until it collapsed.)
The said that the observed sway was thought to be within design tolerances, but also, MAKING it sway might not be the best thing. In other words, any excuse to make the donors happy.
If I can dig up my columns about the ban on Louie, Louie.
sguilfoyle
Member
Yeah. Found two. One on the Cheer (banned at least three times) and another on the sway.
sguilfoyle
Member
Ah, yes, The Gamecock.
I remember many a morning starting my day off with walking from Douglas to the Russell House and reading the latest copy before going to class.
It carried the Bloom County comic strip back then. Also Calvin and Hobbes.
There was also a hottie I knew who wore a fuscia workout outfit when the weather turned cold that always seemed to be walking in front of me.
So it was booty fantasy, Bloom County, and then the drudgery of morning classes for me.
I remember many a morning starting my day off with walking from Douglas to the Russell House and reading the latest copy before going to class.
It carried the Bloom County comic strip back then. Also Calvin and Hobbes.
There was also a hottie I knew who wore a fuscia workout outfit when the weather turned cold that always seemed to be walking in front of me.
So it was booty fantasy, Bloom County, and then the drudgery of morning classes for me.
I still have some Bloom County books somewhere in my stuff. My favorite quote from Bloom County was a song I think Opus made up, and it said "Oh baby, baby, you're tearing me to pieces, would you love me any less, if my tush looked like Ed Meeces's". I don't think any comic strips will ever compare to the triumvirate of Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, and The Far Side.
FurmanCock
Grand Poohbah
Yep, a big fan of Berke Breathed and Gary Larson. I have most of their comic anthologies. I was also a big fan of Herman, back in the day.
Dilbert is probably my current go to fave. Larson is now posting daily selections of his old stuff at https://www.thefarside.com/
Dilbert is probably my current go to fave. Larson is now posting daily selections of his old stuff at https://www.thefarside.com/
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