The Cheerleader Behind the Stadium Wave

Every ballpark crowd knows the wave by heart, and one of the early versions caught on film is from Oakland. On Oct. 15, 1981, a professional cheerleader named Krazy George Henderson led it at Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, with the Yankees in town and the A's at home.

The Man With the Drum

George Henderson began cheering in the late 1960s at San Jose State. He became known for leading cheers one section at a time, with a hand drum, crazy hair and cut-off jeans.

He has cheered for hundreds of teams across hockey, soccer and football, and by around 1978 he was cheering at A's games after the Haas family hired him.

Four Tries Around the Coliseum

Henderson says the first attempt went about eleven sections and died. The second almost made it two-thirds of the way around, with fans following along, before it died again.

The third and fourth worked. The wave rolled through all three decks of the Coliseum, louder each time. In his words, it "kept going about six or eight times around the stadium and it was on video."

Who Owns the Wave

Henderson is not the only person who claims it. Sixteen days after the Oakland game, a crowd at a University of Washington football game did its own wave. HistoryLink, the Washington state history site, calls the University of Washington the wave's biggest springboard, and writes that Henderson "comes out the chronological winner in the 'documented Wave' division."

Henderson says he invented it. This page does not settle the argument. It covers what the A's highlight film shows.

Still Cheering

The drum has outlasted the debate. Henderson was in his 50th year cheering for the San Jose Earthquakes in 2024, and he told CBS News he plans to keep going "until I am at least 99."

The wave still rolls through stadiums every season, one section at a time.