From Legends to Lunatics

Bison super-fans are seeing a resurgence in 2023 with the new Lippy Lunatics leading the charge.

Janel Shoun-Smith | 01/31/2024

Lipscomb University has many icons who have made their marks on the basketball court, but there are other leaders of the Bison Herd who never made it onto the court (at least not during game play). Those are the student fans. Known by many names—Bleacher Creatures, The Stampede, McQuiddy Maniacs, The Stomp Squad, The Zealots, The Lunatics, The Corner of Krunk—even the players will tell you that Bison fans are the secret sauce to a victorious season.

The most recent iteration of Bison super-fandom has been dubbed the Lippy Lunatics (not to be confused with The Lunatics dating back to the 2000s), and they have blazed their own trail at Lipscomb by bringing their current brand of fan enthusiasm to the baseball, volleyball and soccer games in addition to basketball.

While Lipscomb’s trips to the NCAA national basketball championships in 2018 and the NIT basketball tournament in 2019 packed Allen Arena with fans, the 2020 Covid pandemic squelched fan enthusiasm for a time.

So when Landon Parrish (LA ’07, BS ’11, MBA ’20), a member of the original Lunatics, saw an enthusiastic student at a 2022 basketball game “running back and forth with a huge Lipscomb flag,” he was more than excited. “I thought, I haven’t seen that passion for Bison basketball in a student for a long time!”

Parrish, now assistant dean of student engagement, has become a mentor of sorts for the new Lippy Lunatics and even went so far as to host a cookout at his home for past Bison super-fans and the current Lippy Lunatics. “I was thinking, how can I give these guys the tools to be successful, and names started coming into my head of the greats—the legends” from his college days. So he called the event: The Lunatics Meet the Legends. “I wanted to share the experience that my generation of Lunatics had. It was a blessing to be in the same room with two decades worth of Bison fans,” he said.

The Lippy Lunatics are far from the first ones to bring unbridled enthusiasm to the stands. Bison fans through the years have been organized into marching corps, pep bands and official student fan clubs as well as any number of organically formed informal fan “sections” that packed the house at Lipscomb games through the decades.

 

• 1940s-1970s
• 1980s
• 1990s
• 2000s
• The Lippy Lunatics

The 1940s-1970s

Unlike the stereotypical image many may hold today, two of the early coordinated Lipscomb fan groups were made up completely of women: The Pepettes in the 1940s and after that The Bisonettes, which performed at basketball games until 1974. Both groups would sit all together in the stands in their marching uniforms during game play.

Neika Stephens (LA ’52), now a Lipscomb trustee, remembers The Pepettes because she marched with them as what they called their “mascot” even though she was less than 10 years old.

By the 1960s, the group was called The Bisonettes, and lifelong fan Mark French (BS ’63) remembers them as being “pretty prim and proper in the stands” wearing their purple and white jumpers as well as white gloves.

On the court floor during halftime, a whistle would blow and they would march in sequence to the rhythm of a single drummer, making pinwheels, patterns and the initials DLC (for then David Lipscomb College). At the end of their routine, they would form a square, eight people across, and march in rows up the bleachers to their seats, said Pat (Moore) Wood (BS ’74), who teaches at Lipscomb Academy middle school and was the final captain of the Bisonettes in 1974.

It was the regular boom-two-three-four of the women’s feet stomping as hard as they could on the bleachers, marking time, and echoing throughout McQuiddy Gym, that most fans and the participants remember.

“At the end of our routine we formed an ‘L’ and everybody in the whole place would sing the alma mater,” said Wood. “Then what everybody remembers is our marching into the stands… When we got to our spot, we all turned around and gave a shout, and it was so cool!”

The way that McQuiddy Gymnasium, a much smaller venue than Allen Arena, captured and held the sound of the crowd within its walls is something that fan after fan noted as a fond memory—and a primary goal—of the various fan sections over the years.

The 1980’s

By the 1980s, the Bison basketball and baseball teams were riding high on continued success in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) league, and Bison fans had become much more rowdy than the prim Bisonettes. Making noise in the stands was a given.

“Coach [Don] Meyer [men’s basketball coach from 1975 to 1999] encouraged us to be loud, rowdy and boisterous. We did not disappoint,” said 1985 graduate David Mangum (LA ’81, BA ’85).

The Bleacher Creatures, one of the most infamous fan sections, spanned the 1980s including 1986 when the men’s basketball team won the national NAIA championship. Andy Lane (BA ’87), then a sports writer for student newspaper The Babbler, wrote in defense of the spirit of the raucous group. One Bleacher Creature said, he wrote, “if you cheer with your heart, the noise will come… Anyone who has been to a Lipscomb game can testify to the noise they make.”

The group, made up of about 12 die-hard fans, coordinated outfits to wear to games on theme nights, said Shawn Everson (BS ’91). Themes included gladiator night, togas, medical scrubs, bald caps (in honor of bald coach Meyer) and Secret Service night, inspired by former President Gerald Ford’s visit to campus. The guys dressed the part and were actually allowed to escort Coach Meyer and super-fan Chuck Ross out onto the court at the beginning of the basketball game.

They also had “dry rot” night, said Alan Hall (A ’88), where they wore clothes in the worst shape they could find. After that night, Coach Meyer gave them free Lipscomb sportswear to wear to games, laughs Hall.

Chants have always been a fan staple, and Bleacher Creature Mark Kidwell (BS ’86) said that he was told by former basketball player for then-Trevecca Nazarene College (a major cross-town rival at the time) that the two crowd chants that got under their skin the most were the countdown when a player was ejected for earning five fouls and the “Go start the bus” chant where the crowd shook their keys in the last minute of a victorious game.

Brad Fortner (A ’86) recalls fondly the years the Bleacher Creatures partnered with the cheerleaders to provide time-out entertainment. They ran out onto the court and all laid down in patterns to spell B-I-S-O-... and about that time they usually began to mess up their placement, he said. “The whole crowd was wondering, are these guys going to be able to spell ‘Bisons’,” Fortner chuckled . “It was like holding the whole gym in our hands,” as they anticipated the outcome.

 The 1990s

Brent High (BA ’96, MS ’11), a graduate who worked for Lipscomb Athletics in promotions as a student and twice professionally in the years from 1996 to 2015, ushered in what could be called “the confetti years” with the advent of the McQuiddy Maniacs.

The Maniacs were a Lipscomb fan club that collected annual dues of $10 to support the purchase of items to take the game atmosphere “to the next level:” paper megaphones, Bison squeakers and T-shirts were among the fan equipment.

High and his fellow promoters came up with the idea to throw confetti in the air after the first basket made. “I can’t tell you how many hours I had students cutting up paper and putting confetti into plastic bags along with instructions for chants to yell during the free throws or when certain opposing players were in possession of  the ball,” he said.

The confetti became so popular in the late 1990s that at one point they did a massive confetti drop from the ceiling, said High. The McQuiddy Maniacs, and the confetti, were featured in the Nashville Banner newspaper in 1997. High also introduced an early version of the T-shirt cannon to Lipscomb fans with a water balloon launcher sitting behind a sign that looked like Don Meyer, he said. 

“People would fight you for those T-shirts,” he recalled.

The 2000s-2020s

In the world of sports fandom, energy comes and goes throughout the years. Most of the super-fans who live large in the memories of alumni, as well as the leaders of the Lippy Lunatics, say they were spurred to create a “fan section” due to lackluster crowd engagement.

The larger size of Allen Arena, today’s ubiquitous cell phone use and the proliferation of alternative social options, have made it hard for fan sections to keep the crowd enthusiasm up in some years since Lipscomb’s move to the NCAA and the Arena in 2001. But creativity thrives through limitations, and Bison fans have no lack of “college ingenuity,” as one fan described it.

High returned to work at Lipscomb Athletics from 2007 to 2015 and during that time he collaborated with students such as Luke Flener (BA ’07), Ben Pedigo (BA ’09, MACM ’13), Parrish and Garner Goode (BS ’08, EXNS ’11) to fuel The Lunatics student fan section, not to be confused with today’s Lippy Lunatics.

The advent of social media allowed students to see the fun, creative and motivational antics that other universities’ fans were doing, and it spurred Lipscomb fans to do the same, said Goode. Flenor began a tradition of breaking a plate in chapel to encourage students to turn out for games, and Pedigo began holding sing-a-longs and teaching fans specific cheers to yell at certain points in the game, Goode said.

“It was a difficult place [for competing teams] to play on the road,” said Goode. “As fans we felt that if you can’t compete yourself, then at least you can bring a friend and cheer loud! That is what we can do to help.”

And the confetti came back too, with Goode helping to create hundreds of bags of confetti during his tenure working in athletics from 2012-2017. Theme nights also became more coordinated with events such as the Adoption Rally and the Star Wars night, he said.  

Around 2011, TJ Ojehomon (BA ’14), was selected  in his sophomore year by Lipscomb Athletics to be the Bisons’ on-court entertainer, someone to rile up the crowds during time outs. “My personality itself was what made me good in the role,” said Ojehomon. “I then took on more initiative and got a lot more involved and engaged.” 

By his junior year, Ojehomon was selected to serve as a marketing assistant in athletics where he created promotional videos for YouTube, coordinated events and was generally the on-the-ground link to the students for fan initiatives.

Lipscomb’s official fan club at the time was called The Stampede (2012-2014) and membership dues provided amenities such as exclusive seating, group travel arrangements and photo opportunities with the teams. There were many smaller groups of friends tied together by dorm, major or social club who created fan sections, but Ojehomon “was about getting a broader group together,” he said.

In lieu of Homecoming festivities during those years, Ojehomon and others created a season- starting pep rally called HoopapaLUza and a week of events leading up to the Battle of the Boulevard.Ojehomon, nicknamed “The LU Hype Man,” would shout through a megaphone as students were leaving chapel or in the dining hall to announce game days and encourage students to attend. “It was all about creating an energy and a sense of spirit on a fairly conservative campus,” said Ojehomon. “We did that by being bold.”

The Lippy Lunatics

The spirit of the Bison super-fan legends lives on through today’s Lippy Lunatics, who use all the tools of the trade: face paint, T-shirts, coordinated cheers (including the horns-up symbol), theme nights and giveaways to pump up the crowd.

The Lippy Lunatics impact has helped the nationally ranked men’s soccer team to have one of the best home field advantages in the country. The Bisons have gone 16-2-1 over the last two seasons with an 86% winning percentage.

“What we've hit is potentially one of the best collegiate soccer atmospheres ever, already, against Belmont, and we still have years of growth to go,” said Jackson Gibree, sophomore, one of the founders of the Lippy Lunatics.

During his orientation week at Lipscomb as a freshman, Gibree, a sports management major from Cumming, Georgia, and a student coach for the men’s basketball team, attended a Lipscomb volleyball game against national powerhouse Stanford University.

Even though Allen Arena was packed for this highly anticipated matchup, Jackson says, “You could hear a pin drop.” He wanted to bring more energy to support the Bisons and used social media to rally other students.

Because of these efforts, more students began showing up for the Battle of the Boulevard (Lipscomb’s annual games against same-street rival Belmont University) in volleyball and men’s soccer as well as other athletic events. The athletics department reached out and wanted to collaborate. Other student leaders joined the effort, and the Lippy Lunatics student section was born.

The culmination was a packed house in Allen Arena for the men’s basketball 2022 Battle of the Boulevard. An electric crowd helped the Bisons pull out a victory at the last second. The Lippy Lunatics stormed the court after the game to celebrate the victory.

“Everybody went nuts, stormed the court. That was probably the highlight of my year,” recalled Gibree, a former high school athlete.

Over the summer of 2023, Gibree and his fellow students continued to market the Lunatics specifically to the freshman class in hopes of building longevity. This fall, the Lippy Lunatics organized as an official student group, with Gibree as president, RJ Trail as vice president, and Tyler Jorden, Mason Swiggart, Ellie Moen, Will Sprayberry and Carter Gilbert as directors of gameday operations.

It’s Lipscomb’s tight-knit community that both drew Gibree to attend Lipscomb and draws fans to the games, he said. “This place is like a family,” he says. “People here obviously care about each other. I don’t feel like anybody gets lost here. I feel like everybody has a purpose and a place on this campus,” said Gibree.

Gibree wants The Lippy Lunatics to contribute to that family feel and welcoming spirit of the Lipscomb community.

“You don’t expect to have that many students attending games at a small school,” said Gibree, “but once you get there, everybody is invested; everybody is supporting each other; everybody is standing; everybody is chanting, yelling and screaming. It feels like a Power Five atmosphere.”