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Who Dey nation
Staff photo by Nick Daggy
John Robinson sits inside his custom-designed “Who Dey Hero Bus” on Friday, Nov. 6, in Hamilton. Robinson tailgates with a group of fellow orange-and-black fanatics called the “Bengal Bomb Squad” before every home game at Paul Brown Stadium in Lot 1.
It’s orange-and-black world for these fans
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By Rick McCrabb,
Columnist
Updated 12:01 PM Sunday, November 8, 2009
There are casual Cincinnati Bengals fans and there are paint-everything-I-own-orange-and-black Bengals fans.
There are fans who only watch when the team is winning, and there are fans whose Sunday afternoons revolve around the Bengals regardless of their record.
And with the Bengals 5-2 — their best start since the 2005 season when they finished 11-5 and lost in the first round of the playoffs — before they face the 4-3 Baltimore Ravens today, Nov. 8, at Paul Brown Stadium, fans are more enthusiastic than ever.
They have turned their basements into Bengal shrines, purchased vans and converted them into mobile tailgate parties, and fooled their families into believing a three-hour football game is an all-day experience.
Welcome to the Jungle.
'I've been in heaven'
John Robinson, of Hamilton, remembers sitting on his father’s lap when he was 6 years old watching Super Bowl XVI in 1982.
When the Bengals couldn’t score near the goal line and lost 26-21, Robinson cried.
“I was crushed,” he said.
But not defeated. Robinson and his girlfriend have been season-ticket holders for several years, and for them, it’s as much about the tailgate party as the game.
The Bengals kick off at 1 p.m. Robinson kicks off at 5:30 a.m.
“It lasts all day,” he said.
This summer, Robinson and his girlfriend spent their free time and weekends working on a Bengal bus, which is dubbed the “Who Dey Heroes Bus.” They bought the bus for $3,000 from a guy in Eaton.
Robinson said the tailgate group is known as the Bengal Bomb Squad, which maintains a Web site www.BengalBomb Squad.com.
Four hours before kickoff — about the time the rest of us are getting out of bed — Robinson and the bus pull into Lot 1. He blows his horn, which plays the first few chords from “Welcome to the Jungle.”
He unloads the Bengals bar, the blenders, the public address system, and fills five tables with food.
Then, Robinson said, “the explosion begins.”
When asked about being raised a Bengals fan, Robinson said, “It never really stopped. I’ve been in heaven.”
With the team from the beginning
Phyllis Scales has been there since the beginning.
The 72-year-old Fairfield resident has been a “Bengal crazed fan” since 1968, when the team was founded. Before that, she followed the Cleveland Browns.
She refuses to even mention what she calls “the P-word that ends in burg.”
She added with a laugh: “That’d be like cursing.”
She attended the famous “Freezer Bowl,” the AFC Championship game between the Bengals and San Diego Chargers that was played in minus-37-degree windchill in Riverfront Stadium, Super Bowl XXIII in 1989 in Miami, Fla., and attended “Football 101” two years ago that was taught by Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.
Why has she remained loyal for the last 41 years?
“I’m a real fan,” she said. “I don’t understand them people who are only a fan when their team is winning. I’ll stay with them.”
They ‘bleed orange and black’
Kristen Snyder, 26, a multiple-disabilities special-education teacher at Hamilton High School, said in her classroom the students and teachers “bleed orange and black.”
She said the students have weekly Bengal dress-up days and the classroom is decorated in everything Bengals to show their spirit.
Even the class rabbit is named “Who Dey Hopper.”
Snyder, a lifetime Bengals fan, admitted she has “brainwashed” her students into following them. But for her students, it’s more than watching football.
“It gives them something to follow along and talk to others about,” said Snyder, in her fifth year. “It’s interesting to watch their knowledge grow.”
Check out my plates
Larry Anderson isn’t afraid to show his support for the Bengals.
Both of his cars have personalized license plates, “BNGLS1” and “BNGLS2,” which may sound like a good idea now that the team is playing well.
He has passed that passion down to his children.
For instance, during the dreadful 2002 season when the Bengals finished 2-14, Anderson’s daughter, Jill Irwin, and her husband, John, of Liberty Twp., were driving to the game trying to decide whether to put a Bengals flag on the car.
“We displayed it at every game, but it got to the point where we were just tired of people laughing and pointing at us like we were huge idiots for showing our affection for our team,” Jill Irwin said.
They pulled over, put up the flag, and a few miles down the road, saw another car with a Bengal flag.
“We said, ‘Oh good, we are not the only ones who still love our Bengals,’ ” she said.
But inside the car were her father and brother, Greg Anderson.
“It was really funny because it was at a time when the entire city was turned against the Bengals and it seemed that only our family still loved them enough to show that type of support,” she said.
Now, she said, “It’s refreshing to see them winning.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
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5:50 PM, 11/9/2009
6:21 AM, 11/9/2009
5:58 AM, 11/9/2009
11:37 PM, 11/8/2009
You sound like a very angry person.
We all choose our own entertainment what ever form it may be.
yehaw...
7:56 PM, 11/8/2009