Krazy George Henderson
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Krazy George Henderson is the self-proclaimed World's Sexiest Professional Cheerleader, and the inventor of the audience wave.
Krazy George began cheerleading while a student at San Jose State in 1968, where he was also a member of the National Championship judo team. After graduating, he continued cheerleading for free at local sporting events, where he became known for leading sectional cheers, accompanied by his hand drum. In 1975, while working as a high school teacher, Krazy George was hired by the San Jose Earthquakes and the Oakland Seals to be a cheerleader. Later that year he was hired to be a cheerleader for one game by the Kansas City Chiefs, team owner Lamar Hunt then extended his contract for the remainder of the season, and each year through 1979; he has been a professional cheerleader ever since.
On October 15, 1981, while at a nationally televised Oakland Athletics American League Championship Series game against the New York Yankees, Krazy George invented "the wave". According to Krazy George's website, he had thought up the wave earlier, but needed a full stadium for it to be effective, and the A's/Yankees game combined a full stadium with an energetic crowd, the ideal situation for a wave. After a few false starts, the crowd understood what Krazy Geroge was trying to accomplish, and the first successful wave circled the Oakland Coliseum, followed by several others during the game.
In the summer of 2000, supporters of the University of Washington demanded that Krazy George's website be taken down, as they claimed to have invented the wave at their homecoming game against Stanford University in 1981. However, as that game took place on October 31, more than two weeks after the A's/Yankees game, Krazy George has refused to remove his site, and continues to claim the invention of the wave.
Krazy George is regularly seen on Northern California television where he appears on many local comercials.
Employers
During his career, Krazy George has worked for a number of teams in many different sports, including:
- San Jose State University (NCAA)
- Oklahoma State University (NCAA)
- Ball State University (NCAA)
- Kansas City Chiefs (NFL)
- Houston Oilers (NFL)
- Minnesota Vikings (NFL)
- Tennessee Titans (NFL)
- New Orleans Saints (NFL)
- Oakland Athletics (MLB)
- Colorado Rockies (MLB)
- Oakland Seals (NHL)
- Colorado Avalanche (NHL)
- Edmonton Oilers (NHL)
- Winnipeg Jets (NHL)
- San Jose Earthquakes (MLS and NASL)
- Dallas Tornados (NASL)
- Tampa Bay Rowdies (NASL)
- British Columbia Lions (CFL)
- Vancouver Giants (WHL)
- San Jose Giants (California League)
- The United States men's and women's national soccer teams at the Football World Cup
References
- Krazy George's website (http://www.krazygeorge.com)
- Still 'Krazy' after all these cheers (http://www.ocolly.okstate.edu/issues/2000_Fall/001013/stories/still.html)
- The WAVE magazine article Somebody's got to do it (http://www.thewavemagazine.com/printarticle.php?articleid=24131)
Categories: Cheerleaders | San Jose, California | People from California | San Francisco Bay Area sports
