History of Team Spirit

[Steve Howland]

Team spirit at competitions has grown dramatically throughout FIRST over the years, and the spirit group on my team would like to know a little bit about how it all began. This "Spirit Campaign" is intended to help spread FIRST spirit at competitions, including a pamphlet, plenty of pictures, and other spirit-related items. If anyone could post answers to the following questions about spirit, it would be greatly appreciated!

Has the Spirit Award always been around?
Which teams have been spirited since the beginning?
Who had the first costumes/mascots? First identifiable teams? First cheerleaders? First hugs?
Why does it seem to go with robotics so well?

Thanks!

[KenWittlief]

I dont know if it has really grown over the years? The 1st event I attended, Rutgers in 1997, a teacher advised me "bring earplugs"!

"Why?"

"You'll find out".

Uniforms and colorfull hats and team pins, and team cheers on the front steps before the doors opened at 9AM on thursday morning were already well established by then.

[Nica F.]

Originally Posted by Steve Howland

Why does it seem to go with robotics so well?

robotics and spirit go together well because they both help inspire many people. having a good team vibe helps everyone feel better. FIRST inspires many kids/adults/anyone and having spirit squads and all the team identity aspects in robotics just completes the whole setting. =]

[Andy Baker]

I am not sure about this, but I *think* that the TechnoKats (team 45) were the first team to hand out team buttons and pins to other teams. This was in 1994 or 1993.

Andy B.

[KenWittlief]

The Xcats (191) attended the 1st FIRST competition (and won the Chairmans award). Im pretty sure they have video of the event at their facilities. We should bug them to host it on their website, seeing how only a handfull of the original teams are still around.

It was pretty interesting to watch, to compare to the way events are now.

[Carol]

The infamous MOE sticks (which new students may not know) started in 2000 when several students were using sticks to cheer on the team testing the robot at our build site. (You can hear them at http://www.moe365.org/sounds.php) They were then painted with green and black stripes and used by the whole team at competitions to help cheer. They were banned in 2004. In 2002 or so the team passed out MOE-mints candy at the regionals. They were banned the next year. In 2004 the 25 ft tower first appeared. This was a (bright green of course) tower at our pit, with a camera on top providing live shots of the floor below. Note that tall structures are banned now in the pits. Is this a trend?

They can't ban our dancing team however!

[Bharat Nain]

I think team spirit seems to go so well with robotics is because we see it as a normal sport and therefore cheering is encouraged. Different teams picked up on this and have given different aspects to team spirit(buttons, coloring hair, coloring face, crazy hats, awesome dances). This also makes the competition fun and appealing. Who[spectator] would want to go to a dull competition just because two robots are moving on the field doing something they don't understand. Team spirit is a necessity.

[Ianworld]

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.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

The Xcats (191) attended the 1st FIRST competition (and won the Chairmans award). Im pretty sure they have video of the event at their facilities. We should bug them to host it on their website, seeing how only a handfull of the original teams are still around.

It was pretty interesting to watch, to compare to the way events are now.

I'm trying to load it up onto Google Video but it's massive and it never quite loads all the way up.

[mom571]

Team 571 is researching and gathering historical data on the growth and spread of SPIRIT. We would like to hear from FIRST Team members and Mentors that experienced this movement through the FIRST community.
I looked at pictures from the 1st competition in N.H. "Maize Craze", did not see any form of team or FIRST Spirit. So, when and where and by whom? Who made the 1st button? Who had the first goofy hat?
If you have competition pictures of the early years with proof that your team started it all, please send them in.
Thanks,
Team Paragon Spirit MOM

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by mom571

Team 571 is researching and gathering historical data on the growth and spread of SPIRIT. We would like to hear from FIRST Team members and Mentors that experienced this movement through the FIRST community.
....Who made the 1st button? ...

I'm not sure the first give-away was a button. There were some very creative items shared in the 2000 to 2002 period. (Didn't the X-Cats give away "Swedish Fish" candy in bags labelled as Cat Food in 2001?)

I was just digging through the box of FIRST tchotchkes the other day looking to see if I had another of the Ford shoulder straps to carry water bottles. (I didn't.) I couldn't help but notice the diversity of items that were given out in past years. Now it seems that 95+% of the handouts at competitions are buttons. I don't know if that is because FIRST has banned some of the items (food in particular), or if buttons are so much easier/quicker than doing something more unique.

[Ianworld]

I don't think its that other items have become less popular I just think that buttons have become sort of a common denominator. Any team that is capable of creating a couple hundred buttons seems to make them. Its a good thing to in my opinion, almost like playing cards for every FIRST team. I still have my massive chain of buttons from my first nationals. It just blew me away and i'll probably never throw them out. So as I was saying, there are still lots of unique items. They're just hidden behind a sea of buttons.

Anothe reason perhaps has to do with the popularity of FIRST. Almost everything costs more than a button to make. With so many people attending competitions now and so many people wanting the giveaway(who doesn't love free stuff!) that teams have to give something away thats cheap and easy. I know my team has buttons always(we bought something like 5000 two years ago with just our logo on it at a really cheap per piece price) but that to people that are really interested and to other teams we're maybe tyring to get picked by(great diplomacy method ) we give the good stuff to. When somebody picks up and uses a 694 wrench they think, yeah that team is pretty is cool.

[Carol]

Well, to be fair the MOE sticks were loud and hurt some people's ears (hence the earplugs). And I can understand FIRST banning loud, annoying noisemakers, tall structures, and food freebies for safety reasons. But the best noisemakers are still the people themselves. Cheering, dancing, applauding for your team and others is still the highly encouraged.

On the other hand, FIRST bans do increase creativity. I can't wait to see how many teams have exactly 10 foot tall pits. And new noisemakers and mascots are popping up every year. I remember a team at Nationals (can't remember who) last year with some interesting shaking type noisemakers. And MOE is still making wobblies - discovered serendipitously by a student last year who was playing around with a sheet of plastic.

I would like to challenge all teams to come up with Spirit aids that don't violate FIRST rules! Let's see what you can do! (After your robot is shipped of course).

[dk5sm5luigi]

Originally Posted by mom571

I looked at pictures from the 1st competition in N.H. "Maize Craze", did not see any form of team or FIRST Spirit.

From watching the finals videos of 1992 there was a lot of team spirit. When I saw it 2 years ago I was surprised how much team spirit has stayed the same since 1992.

As for team spirit I think it has gone down a little (at least in NE) over the past several years. In 1997 and 1998 when the regional was in New Hampshire there were shouting cheers (We've got spirit, etc.) going across the gymnasium and everyone was involved. When the competition was moved to Hartford teams tried to continue this but Meadows was a terrible spectator arena and noise didn't travel that well. The one year the competition was in New Haven the team spirit seemed to pick up and I think this is because it was easy to have cheer wars across the field.

What I would like to know is which team was first to have a pep band. I know the team which is currently 155 (Technonuts from Berlin, CT) had a pep band in 1996 and every year after that until they were made illegal.

[kborer22]

team spirit goes so well because of the pride that everyone in first takes in what they accomplished! The first year that i actually built something that ended up on the robot was one of the proudest moments of my life. Just seeing somethign that your put blood sweat and tears into compete and hopefully suceed on a regional or national level is just amazing. Another goal of dean and woody was to promote teamwork, and i think that everyone can relate to how truly difficult this can be. Team spirit is a celebration of everyone surviving the 6 weeks with out killing eachother. The relationship you build with your teammates during the 6 weeks caries over as well, usually the more spirit the closer the team. I was on team 11 for the past 3 year(currently team 125) and when i started there was not much there in the way of spirit. As we came togeather as a team, and really felt confident in what we had built and accomplished each build season the team moral went up. Once you get a little taste of sucess, either winning an award, or just being complimented by the judges its amazing how quickly you can build spirit.