Thursday, February 20, 1997
OPINION:
Stocking-cap-wearing group’s ranks expanding with recruitsRob
Kariakin
You wouldn’t know it to look at them, but there is something not
quite right about these guys.
Dressed in street clothes, they look normal enough (well, all
except the "log lady" that is, that guy would be a bit odd-looking
regardless of what he’s wearing). But there’s another side to them.
Not really a dark side, more like a blue side, a baby-blue
side.
You see, these eight-plus guys are the loonies in the baby-blue
stocking caps and "wife beaters" (white tank-top undershirts,
preferably well-stained) standing in the first row of the student
section at every men’s basketball game.
Admit it, you’ve seen the beenie-boys, and they frightened you.
Go ahead, it’s perfectly natural. After all they are the weirdest
thing to happen to UCLA basketball since that guy in the green suit
started dancing behind the west basket. (Alright, the beenie-boys
came first, but you get my point.) They scream, they cheer, they
mug for the camera. And they brave the elements for the right to do
it.
The night before every home game, the original eight-plus
beenie-boys camp out in the stairwells of Pauley Pavilion, beating
the early morning rush for the low priority numbers that will bring
the promised land of the front row.
They are "eight-plus" rather than nine because the ninth, the
log lady, couldn’t get season tickets and as a result missed a few
games.
"I’m like the log lady from ‘Twin Peaks.’ I’m in some episodes,
then I’ll be gone for a while, then I’m there again."
The other eight, Randy, Marc, Rick, Chris, Andrew, Jake, Ben and
Marcus (their last names are a well-guarded secret to protect
against potential legions of female stalkers) haven’t missed a game
yet this season, and they don’t plan to.
Randy, the patriarch of the line, has camped out for every home
game since the start of the 1994-95 championship season. As a
member of the UCLA band, he could get into most of the games
anyway, but says he camps out "just for the heck of it."
But that’s all ancient history, anecdotes from the pre-beenie
past. The group didn’t take on its current "wife beater" and blue
cap appearance until this season, with the arrival of freshmen
Jake, Ben, Marcus and Marc (Randy’s younger brother).
Since the new blood instituted the uniforms at the start of the
season, the group has garnered widespread attention.
"Those guys are freaks," said one longtime fan. "What the hell
is wrong with kids these days?"
Regardless, the beenie-boys’ captivation of the spotlight has
had it’s benefits. They’ve had a group photo taken for the UCLA
yearbook, received free merchandise from Nike and may soon be
sponsored by Fruit of the Loom. (No, really.)
So much new-found success might jeopardize lesser groups, but
not the beenie-boys. When the inevitable question arose of the
possibility of members of the group leaving school early for the
pros, Marcus echoed the sentiments of fellow college stars Tim
Duncan and Jacque Vaughn.
"It’s tempting with all the agents and cars and money, the
chance to buy your momma a house and set your family up for life.
But there’s something about the college game."
The choice may ultimately hinge on the career paths of Bruin
basketball stars J.R. Henderson, Jelani McCoy and Toby Bailey.
"If they stay (at UCLA), we’ll definitely stay," Marcus
promised.
In any case, the future of the beenie movement on campus looks
bright. In addition to the countless walk-ons who have flocked to
the group once their TV exposure was realized, the beenie-boys have
also had a stellar recruiting year.
Lead by 5-foot-7-inch Sarah Erickson, who averages 10 cheers per
game and had repeatedly pledged to sign if Steve Lavin was named
head coach, UCLA has what is widely considered as the No. 1
incoming beenie class in the nation.
That recruiting class was jeopardized in recent weeks when
rumors surfaced that Erickson had been seen arriving at her high
school in Lavin’s early 1980’s-model Toyota Corolla. However the
entire campus breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday when an NCAA
investigation cleared the school of all wrongdoing.
With the future thus secured, the only thing that can stop the
beenie-boys is complacency. But they’ve taken care of that danger
by establishing firm goals towards which to strive.
"Our goal was John Wooden in a ‘wife beater,’" Rick said.
"That was the end goal for the year," Andrew agreed.
God help us all.
Kariakan is a Daily Bruin Columnist.