Carol, that was a sad post, sorta. MOE has always amazed me with their team spirit. At nationals last year I was always overjoyed and happy to be driving knowing full well that the MOE stick figure crowd was there cheering me on in their own silent manner. (Seriously that was awesome) I was lucky enough to catch the moe sticks in their last year. It was also the year that I found out about MOE ear plugs.
As for the history if cheering I can't tell you much having only been around for 5 years. I can't say its changed much over the past 5 years. Maybe some teams have gotten more extravagant. I was impressed with PINK's giant robot suit they showed up with in NYC two years ago(same goes with the full pink body paint.) I really wanted to make a giant robot suit after that. They're were a bunch wandering around nationals though, so I guess its been around for a bunch of years.
I know my team has always had a plethora of goodies to give out. We've done everything from yo-yo's to I think our coolest, limited edition stuypulse 7/16th wrenches.