The Antlers

The Antlers are an organized group of rowdy University of Missouri student basketball fans known for heckling the opposing teams.

History

The Antlers were formed in 1976 when a small section of 11 courtside seats in the school's basketball arena at that time, Hearnes Center, was made available to all students. At the time, all other prime level seating was reserved for alumni and major financial contributors. A lottery was held for the seats and the winners, including Antler co-founders Jeff Gordon (now a sportswriter for the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch") and Rob “The Hammer” Banning decided to go all-out with their cheering style to celebrate the new seating arrangement. During their second season in the new seats, someone observing their cheering style dubbed them the Antlers, and the name stuck. The group soon grew from 5 to 22 members when it was expanded to fill all of the seats in A-16.

Wild costume and constant taunting of opponents gained media exposure for the Antlers. As they became more organized and their pranks became more colorful, they gained national exposure from articles about them in "Sports Illustrated" and "The Sporting News". In the mid-1980s, "USA Today" even named The Antlers as one of the top five fan groups in the nation. Their antics quickly became notorious throughout the conference. The high demand of membership could never accommodate all those who were interested, so membership the group was inherited, either through actual kinship or through friendship. Nowadays, however, membership can be attained through an application and the successful completion of an interview, which consists of standing at Speakers' Circle on the MU campus and fielding questions from established Antlers (which range from "Who is your all-time favorite Mizzou player" to "Show, via interpretive dance, why Kevin Malone is the best character on "The Office".") Answers to these questions must be yelled, and "I don't know" is never considered an acceptable answer.

A major frustration for the school’s administration, and a point of pride for the Antlers, is that they are a purely student group and not a sanctioned or sponsored university organization. Therefore, it's much harder to discipline them through academic channels. While Norm Stewart was coaching, they had his support and protection, but after Stewart's retirement, the group was stripped of their treasured courtside seating section.

In 1994, then-Athletic Director Joe Castiglione suspended the group's seating for a year after Castiglione and then-assistant football Coach Curtis Jones had to restrain an Oklahoma basketball player who tried to charge the stands following comments by the Antlers. In 1995 the Antlers seats were moved from the front of A16 to the back of the same section. [ [http://www.themaneater.com/article.php?id=8048 The Maneater - Antlers struggle for seats ] ]

The Antler Dance

The name Antlers, having nothing to do with the University of Missouri, stems from a dance being performed by the Antlers during a basketball game. The dance closely resembled one from a skit from the 9/18/76 Lily Tomlin "Saturday Night Live" episode that had recently aired. [ [http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2005/03/06/antlers-nearing-their-30-year-anniversary-at-misso/ Columbia Missourian - Antlers nearing their 30-year anniversary at Missouri ] ] In the skit, Tomlin danced with her hands at the side of her head, fingers outstretched like she had antlers. Antler founders Gordon and Banning watched the skit in the fourth floor lounge of Hudson Hall and took the idea to one of their first games as an official group. During the "Missouri Waltz," members of the new group performed their new dance with their hands at their head like antlers. A member of press row noticed them doing the dance and dubbed them the Antlers. The Antlers continue to do the Antler dance to this day.

Notable Antics

Prior to a Missouri-Kansas basketball game in 2003, members of the Antlers prank called KU coach Roy Williams at his home at 2:27, 2:45, and 3:05 a.m. [ [http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2003/mar/08/antlers_antics_dont/ LJWorld.com / Antlers' antics don't ruffle Roy ] ] Such activities are what the Antlers are best known for. In the week prior the MU-KU game, they obtain the numbers of KU players and coaches and crank call them all week long. They also make huge signs with the players' names and phone numbers.

On March 9, 2003, KU played MU in Columbia. Members from the Antlers greeted the KU players at the hotel, holding up signs that read "Plane Crash." These signs were also evident during a nationally televised game. The "Plane Crash" signs were in reference to Nick Collison's senior day speech, where he talked about his grandfather who was a WWII Veteran. According to Collison, his grandfather's plane crashed during D-Day, but survived. [ [http://www2.kusports.com/news/2003/mar/10/jayhawks_return_antlers/ KUsports.com - Jayhawks return Antlers' taunts ] ]

Even current Mizzou coach Mike Anderson remembers his first encounter with the Antlers when he was an Arkansas assistant in the early 1990s. As Arkansas players and coaches were arriving at their hotel, several Antlers pulled up alongside with a pig's head on the top of their car and told members of the Arkansas team "Hey, this is going to happen to you guys." Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson claimed pig blood splattered on his suit.

In the 2005 regular season home opener, an Antler blew up the picture of the girlfriend of a Sam Houston State University player that was found on Facebook. On Facebook, the photo, in which she was holding a bottle of vodka wearing only a bra, was accompanied by a message expressing how much she loved him and how she gets a big stupid smile on her face when she sees him. During the game, the Antlers held up the picture and chanted "Reggie's got a girlfriend", and sang the song "Angel" by Shaggy. They also pointed to her and yelled the contents of her love message, as well as several other comments that were considered by some to be in poor taste.

Prior to a Tiger victory over the Baylor Bears in February 2005, one Antler was invited into the Bears' locker room, where coach Scott Drew dared him to repeat the obscenities that he and some of the other Antlers screamed at the Baylor team at a Columbia restaurant the prior evening. Antler policies exist against cursing or off-color remarks, but individuals have been known to cross the line on several occasions. [ [http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2005/feb/20050217news004.asp Fans’ rant rates Antler’s encore in locker room ] ]

The Antlers are also ready to attack more than just players. Following criticism by columnist Tony Messenger in February 2005, they offered a verbal response to him during the first half of a game against his home-state Colorado Buffaloes. While Colorado’s Glean Eddy was attempting free throw's, the Antlers chanted Messenger's name and informed him of how much they believe he sucks.

When Oklahoma visited the Hearnes Center for the first time after coach Billy Tubbs was hit by a car while jogging, the Antlers dressed up in jogging gear and walkmans and bandaged their heads. The Antlers ran onto the court and one of the members made a cardboard car ran over them with it.

Iowa State center Dean Uthoff's was the center of another Antler prank when they obtained the phone number at his dorm in Ames and called him. They posed as huge fans and wanted to show their appreciation by ordering him a pizza, and they told him and it should be downstairs in his lobby in a half hour. Uthoff fell for the scam and waited nearly an hour for the pizza. The Antlers later called again to ask how the pizza tasted. Two days later when Iowa State visited Mizzou, all of the Antlers were waving empty pizza boxes at him when he ran onto the court.

During a 2007 game at the Tigers' current home, Mizzou Arena, against Texas Tech, one of the Antlers dressed up as Bob Knight. The Knight impersonator began to walk around the student section and hit all the students, parodying Knight's reputation of being difficult on his players.

In another well-known moment, the Antlers held up pictures of former Kansas coach Larry Brown and Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and asked, “Which one's the terrorist?”

For every game, the Antlers make signs that correspond to the opposing team's starting players, usually playing off their names. They can also reference the players' family or notorious events they were involved, such as Kansas State forward Bill Walker being called "MC Pee Pants" in reference to a game against Oregon in which he urinated into towels on-court. In recent years, these signs have been censored by the athletic department, whose staff has begun checking them at the door. The Antlers occasionally make other signs for use throughout the game, including this infamous one that was shown on a national CBS broadcast:
Corey
Beck has
Syphilis

Another example was seen on December 9, 2002, before Missouri's 88-67 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay. The sign played off the names of two Phoenix players, Calix N'Daiye and Derek Schiedt. The sign read: Eat Schiedt N'Daiye. Stadium security was originally unsure whether to confiscate the sign, but they eventually did late in the second half. Some applauded the cleverness of the sign, and the fact remains the sign simply displayed two opposing players' last names. The confiscation of the sign drew negative reaction from local media.

In 2007 during the waining seconds of a Mizzou versus Oklahoma basketball game one of the Antlers tried to distract the player from making a free-throw in a very disturbing manner that was caught on film. Here is a link to it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aCpgfJ4E6L4

References