Strangest display of team spirit
 

Ok, I haven't been involved with FIRST very long, but I've seen some interesting displays of team spirit, but this year at the lonestar reigonal, I saw one of the most interesting,(and slightly disgusting) display of team spirit....

Team 647, (the cyber wolves I believe), carved their team number into urinal cakes in the men's bathroom..... Has anyone else seen anything really strange or unique as far as displays of team spirit?

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

<baleeted because I was wrong--see below>

As for spirit, well, some just go to the next level.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

They brought their own urinal cakes, they didn't use the ones the arena provided, so I don't think that really falls under the pretext of vandalism... plus there were no urinal cakes in there the days before, so I guess you could call it a service in toilet cleanliness as well.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

That changes everything--I stand corrected.

--Billfred, who is remembering what happens when you assume...

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

It's still gross.
And I certainly don't want my team represented as someone for others to take a leak on.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I never noticed the 647 urnial cakes at Lone Star. Still thats pretty gross.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

i acctaully saw this too. I wasn't impressed. I didn't see it until the competition was over, but correct me if i'm wrong but didn't 647 win the imagery award... Doesn't seem like a good image to promote if you ask me.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

That sounds like the act of a misguided kid who thought this would actually be funny. Any team with responsible adults would not sanction this.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I do understand where everyone is coming from. I wouldn't like to have few kids represent my team like that either, but have you thought about the other 30 kids and other mentors who are on the team? did they support this? I am very sure the mentor never said "go do it". Team 647 is part of FIRST family, and I don't think it is very gracious how we are going at them in this thread. I think there is a much better way to solve this problem. Maybe contacting the mentors or teachers on team 647 would help. Let them know what exactly happened at lonestar regional so they would be able to prevent it from happening again.

... It doesn't help when you state the problem and comment about it every time, but it do help when you try to solve it. :)


Please don't take any offense.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Man, I think people are kinda blowing this out of proportion... its not really all that bad... No worse than somebody running around with no shirt on and numbers painted on their chest...

And yes, 647 did win the imagery award.

And for the record, their coach was in the bathroom, and did see it, and didn't seem at all irritated by it... I found it quite amusing, and so did their coach apparently, as he was laughing about it in the bathroom. I don't really see this as a "problem", I think its fairly amusing and creative. How in the world would you find putting your number in a toilet overly offensive? People noticed it didn't they? Then the point got across. This was by no means to start people taking shots at 647, it was merely to point out something I found creative and amusing, that people seem to be taking a bit too seriously.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I'll stick my neck out and say it--once I found the cakes weren't the arena's, I laughed. I wouldn't do it myself, but that's definitely something I never thought of--and if there's one thing I enjoy in FIRST, it's seeing things others come up with that I never would've thought up.

(Perhaps if they hadn't won Imagery, they would've won the Xerox Creativity award? :D)

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Anyone remember seeing the sticky notes over the urinals in Atlanta last year saying, "Our team is well hung!"? I don't remember what team it was, but I think thats much worse than the urnial cakes that 647 had this year.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I don't see why every one is making a big stink about this. If a team carves their number into the things that we go pee on i would go see this team that did that. If there is a team that is "man enough", for lack of a better word, to get your attention that way then go for it. See they got you guys talking about them and they won the imagery award, and i think that at least one of the judges would have noticed it at least once, so they must be doing something good. So don't knock them for getting your attention, my thing is is what are you doing to get the attention of F.I.R.S.T. teams? Handing out button? Cheering loud? yes you have your chairmans stuff and thats great but they have caught people eyes in a different way. And they did it so well they you have started a thread about it. So please if you are going to complain I want you to start thinking about ways to catch peoples attention like they did. I think its cool.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

OK I'm going to be the total wet blanket here.
FIRST is in a constant struggle to get funding, sponsors and school support. So how do you think a urinal cake with a team number (or a corporate or school logo) is going to over in the boardroom or the PTA meeting. Do you think they are going to want to be affilited with FIRST?
It may seem like "harmless fun" but step back and take a look at the big picture. It's doing alot more damage than you think. Alot of people have put way to much hard work and dedication into this institution to just let it be trashed like that.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Whats wrong with things in urinals? I'm pretty sure O remeber seeing many Anti-Drug campaign advertisements in urinals...and I still do, it depends on where you go. I have to say, the cakes are intersting/creative. I laughed when I read about it.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I dunno. I find it amusing. I wouldn't have thought of it, and probably wouldn't have done it, but I can't see the harm in it, really. It's just a bit of creative advertising.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

This thread looks like its turing into another arguement thread where everyone's coming back to prove their point. I have to go with koko ed's comment, because most of the time FIRST expects us to be professional.

... Moderators, if you think this thread is going out of hand, please close it. Thanks. Since this thread is simply putting down team 647.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I think it is a great Idea. Its a little bit odd but its funny and new. Marketing is all about reaching people in new places in new ways, A team finds a way that isn't harmfully to anyone, actually its usefull to people in this case, they should be patted on the back not made fun of.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Ok if you think that this isn't funny and non-harmful then there is something rong. did any body get hurt? no. did some one use their mind to do something creative and funny that people would notice? yes. there is no harm in that.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I wish someone from that team would come and defend their actions. I don't think everyone should take shots at a team that isn't able to fight back. As for my fellings towards it i think that it wasn't the most professional thing they could have done, but i think it is creative and a funny idea.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Like it or not (and I'm not saying which I think), advertising is headed this way. When we all get DVRs to skip TV ads, the advertisers fight back with gorrilia advertising.

Like it or not, it is cleaver and out-of-the-box.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

i'm going to be brave and be the first girl to comment....


personally... i believe that if team 647 went to the trouble to carve their team number into those little ..things... thats their prerogative. (if i saw that i probably would have been amused at their creativity...) they got the imagry award, so congrats to them :)

However, talking about these little urinal decorations wasnt the point of this thread! this is asking to share about strange displays of team spirit... not to discuss whether or not putting the cakes in the boys bathrooms was a good idea.


...just trying to refocus the thread before this gets out of hand :)

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I know what I am about to say is not directly related so I will delete it if it causes problems. Anyways when I was at the South Dakota boys state conference there was a similar event. If you are unaware what boys state is it is a week long government camp with the American Legion. During the gubernatorial election the federalists decided that hanging posters above the urinals that said "Vote Hickey, Dix the future is in your hands." While some found it funny including some of the veterans, others tore them down and threw them into the urinals. I guess what I am trying to say is this team should not be judged for their actions, even if it was bordering on inappropriate.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

i could not agree more

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Of course, in a PTA boardroom, why wouldn't they think "wow, thats a creative way to get your name out there". I'm with KT, urinals also say don't do drugs in them often. Its something that alot of people use, and see. It in no way degrades anything, hurt anybody, or messed anything up. If anything, a 50 cent urinal cake will have to be thrown away or turned over.... which is an expense to the team. In the real world, advertisement comes wherever you can get it, be it on a billboard, or in a toilet, if someone sees it, and remembers it, then its done its job. Their coach thought it was funny, and creative, so there was no objection from their team adult, so if their sponsor wasn't bothered by it, I don't see why anybody else should be really concerned about it..... It wasn't done by another team in order to degrade them, do I don't see how there was anything wrong.

And other strange spirit displays.... I think it was 567, the vikings, had 3 guys with a number painted on their chests dancing around in viking helmets at the lone star place too... I found that one pretty unique

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

While mascots are typically common, I've been told that a number of people found our sumo wrestler mascot rather strange...

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

It's hard to judge if a team's actions should be judged without judging the team's actions :]

(sorry. couldn't resist.)

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

ummmmmm....

I'd also like to defend 647, it certainly takes guts to do that and it obviously was well recognized (for better or for worse as the case may be). KokoEd, I can see where you are coming from but as a former School Board member myself, things like this will float under the radar pretty well; I'd laugh if I had seen it too!

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Back in the day 1999. Way before some. We (237) once wrapped someone up in aluminum foil. We thought it was a great idea at the time, but who knew it was 90 degree + outside the pit area.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

No problem, .... I think. Are you talking about my judging the judgment of judging them. Or are you talking about the judges that would have to judge their judgments for awards and whatnot. Wow I think I just confused myself. :ahh:

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Personally I'd be ammused if I looked down and saw that, and I know for a fact the sponsors of my team have very good sense of humors and would end up laughing if they went to the event and saw that. Our team mentors wouldn't allow us to do that, but if the students did it behind their back, the mentors would just laugh and stand behind the team because in the end it is harmless.

My team has a long 14 ft arm, a T shape end, with a half ball on the very end and on the left and right sides of the T.. We had offered 10 bucks if a person could physcially touch one of the balls..

Now our mentors and team had some fairly creative, well not creative, but funny stuff to put on the sign, we didn't because it was a borderline comment and would possibly offend some females and the adults that wouldn't see innocent humor.

But anyway I know teams have to have some other strange and creative ways of getting their team out there and I'd be interested in hearing some stuff.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Yea Team 456 had 4 guys running around with no shirts when standing together they said GO 456. It was funny, but still should not have been done. To some people this could have bothered them and made them uncomforitible. I think it was unprofesional when they went to except an award and one of the guys was hugging the judges.

On the urinal Cake they did it teh last day before lunch.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I would have done something like that after lunch... I mean, do you really want to eat lunch after sticking your hand in a toilet?

Ya, that was interesting too....

Last year we wrapped someone in orange streamers and had them run around the stands. That looked very nice.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Ummm...don't bathroom activities normally stink? ;)
I don't think the judges necessarily use the same bathrooms as the teams, seeing as they often have their own VIP facilities. Even if the male judges saw these items, I expect their opinions would have been as varied as this thread.

My favorite at the SoCal Regional was Team Hyper's three-headed "mascot," or whatever it was supposed to be. (I watched the team screw two mannequin heads into the shoulders--really strange.) So they had this guy's real head in the middle, and two weirdly made-up female looking heads on either side, plus the vividly colored costume.

And poor Mark Leon, after using the word "math" just about every other sentence, would make a mistake and call this creature "two-headed!" l.o.l. To his credit, he did correct himself. I think he was very tired.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I am the team captain of team 647; yes, I am admitting that my team put the urinal cakes in the men’s restroom. We did bring our own new, unused, urinal cakes to the event and a student member carved our number into them. (Making our shop smell very good). The intentions of this were humor and advertising and to get people to remember our number. It also gave server of our team members something to do between ship and our regional. Obviously, this worked and if some people took offensive to what I find as a harmless act of humor and advertising I apologize. In addition, for the record our team mentors did know of this and encouraged the creativity of the team. Along with our custodians, help acquired the team the urinal cakes to accomplish this feat of advertisement. We did win Imagery at LSR but I would not put the urinal cakes as any part of the reason for this. We won imagery because of our camo net tent, digital camo pants, camo robot, and tank cart puller. Our military theme fits perfectly with our sponsors who our OTC/TESCO who tests military equipment before it gets out to the soldiers.

In summery, were sorry if this offended anyone but this seemed like a very creative and harmless way to get our number to other teams at our regional.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I too would like to defend team 647. Personally, the competition itself is more about having fun than competing. I m sure the corporations, teachers, students, spectators and staff come with the same mindset. Furthermore, doing stupid (but responsible) stunts adds more teenage flavor to the competition.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

One more thing I would like to add was that after our initial team discussion of this subject one of our team members decided to become Urinal Cake Captain. He took on this project and through it gained valuable leadership skills. He made sure everything on this project got done and he made it a reality.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

As an old fuddy duddy, I don't have any problem with the urinal cake idea. At Chesapeake the RAGE team had an entire basket of health and sanitary products at the sinks in the ladies bathroom. They had bandages, lotion, hand sanitizer, and more and no one took offense at the advertisement for cleanliness and how it would impact their team image. I guess it is all in the placement and the idea that you guys actual pee on top of urinal cakes that some find offensive. Well, as someone who occasionally has been in a unisex bathroom and lives with three males, any attempt at making your toilet facilities more sanitary is welcomed, in my opinion. Now, if I could just teach them all to wash their hands!

I thought the team that trotted around the arena with the half coconut shells; like they were from Monty Python, was great and unique. My 12 year old, visiting on Saturday, thought it hilarious.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Haha! Urinal Cake Captian. lol. Awsome idea but I m sure there are people on this forum that disagree. This is because there are so many different personalitites that come together as a FIRST team. I was the scouting leader at the Toronto regional. I had a pink tie and a big note on my back saying "I love Robot Chicks. Got number??". Some people (including my one team mate) found that offensive but some thought it was hilarious.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Hi All,

As the Lone Star Regional Director, I will comment on the cause and effect of a team's creativity. I take my job as a Regional Director very seriously. One of the things, I love about FIRST is the opportunity of interacting with lots of great people. The students, mentors, volunteers and great sponsors. My committee and I work hard all year long to make the Lone Star Regional a great experience for all teams attending. We have a spare parts booth for teams that includes screws, nuts, bolts etc. FIRST provides motors etc the regional committee provides the extras. All of our teams are valued and treated as if they were our own. The Houston committee and our volunteers takes team customer service to the next level.

With that said, you ask what harm does this teenage creativity cause. The reputation of our regional. Yes, I did hear about this from the Reliant venue folks. What someone may view as creativity is viewed by others in another way. This facility doesn't belong to FIRST or the Lone Star Committee. This youthful creativity will be brought up when we need this facility for next year's regional. So if you are a student or a mentor on a team, please think is this something that would make your grandmother proud.

Team 647 is a wonderful team and has some great mentors and I know that all of them want to make their grandmothers proud.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I understand where you are comming from but the funny thing is is that my grandmother called me and told me that my grandfather had seen this post on here. She thought it was absolutly hilarius. So I think that it wouldn't make them proud but then again it wouldn't be anything to be ashamed of, atleast I kinow that my grandmother wouldn't say that she didn't know me if I did something like that.



The driver for team 537 at Midwest painted his face, hair, and his neck red. I thought that was pretty cool.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I will just state this point. The bottom line it is what one thinks is funny cause problems for the regional.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I think this thread is getting off topic again, so I will try to steer it back on course. I was recently at Toronto and I saw a team, not sure of their number at the moment, who had created an animation of their mascot dancing to the song "Cotton Eye Joe". They then asked to have it put up on the screen whenever the song was played and had their real life mascot dancing along with their animated one. This is one of the most creative things i have seen at all the regionals i have been to (Nine or ten if you count Nationals.)

And for the second year in a row, team 229 also has had three of our members running around and dancing with 229 painted on their chests. At Cleveland they were asked to put their shirts back on by the announcer during one of the breaks. He didn't want them to scare the women and children. :D They were happy to throw their shirts back on and simply put a duct taped 229 on their shirts instead.

JT
229

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

This was very cleaver! Team 647 is a great team and I thought is was funny. The big question is how did Reliant management react to the situation (hopefully they were ok with it).

Altough I would have used a bullseye! :D

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Okay, the urinal cakes were great, even if I didn't see them (being as I go to the WOMENS restroom and for some reason a lack thereof of urinals and their cakes). Spite on anyone who took offence to it. If anyone should take offence to it, it should be the cyber wolves... I mean... in the end people are pissing on the team -_-;.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

now if you could only offense right megan.....


THE URINAL CAKES WERE GENIUS!

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I think an interesting display of spirit is 245 handing out those little plane flyer thing-a-magigers. They are all over and it is really cool how many they give out.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Here is another story straight from team 229:

This year 229 had a deal with two of our college mentors, JVN and Chris Carnevale. If we medaled at 2 regionals, we would get to shave their heads. Well lo and behold team 229 got silver at both the Finger Lakes Regional and the Buckeye Regional. We figured that this was a good way to get psyched for nationals while still giving their hair time to regrow before nationals. (John we are really hoping it grows back)
Oh sure, we made a lot of jokes about John being bald enough and Chris looking like Pee-Wee Herman but it was all good in the end. For pics check out in this thread http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...le&picid=10853 and http://www.team229.org/photo/57/

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

I see future material for Billfred's caption thread.

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

been there done that only we got our mentor to shave his head on national television, he did it when we won the nationals and got to go on Good Morning America

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Hmm.. during the Rochester finals we cheered for our alliance, which was on the blue side, in hexidecimal - "ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO F F!!!"

Re: Strangest display of team spirit
 

Well you know what? I even used spell check. The only thing it picked up was "okay" wanting to switch it to "kay". Anyway, you were the smart one asking if I saw the cakes in the first place, since you KNOW how often I go into the men's bathrooms. ¬_¬