Last weekend I watched the conference championship games, and a question popped into my mind when I watched the inevitable drenching of the coach by players armed with a cooler of Gatorade/water/whatever. Who started this? Why? Some team somewhere started this tradition, and I’m curious if anyone can think of which team was the first, and which coach was the first to be baptized by this custom?
The New York Giants like to say they started it during their first Super Bowl season (1983?) and that Harry Carson was the prime instigator.
However, the Giants were probably the first professional team to do it frequently and do it on TV. It’s probably been done for a long time.
Dunno, but I doubt very much it was the Green Bay Packers under Vince Lombardy. Not exactly the type of humour he would have appreciated. Nor would his players, once back in the locker room:D.
It was the Giants’ Carson who soaked Bill Parcells; he saw it coming and tried to fight it, but lost. What an incredibly stupid tradition.
The only justice I’ve seen happen in regard to this dumb tradition was several years back, in an account I read in Sports Illustrated. It wasn’t a pro game, but a college or high school basketball game. Their team was ahead by 5 or so points with two or so seconds to go, so the team dumped the Gatorade on the coach. Of course, since they were indoors, unlike on a football field, the court itself got drenched. The team was assessed a technical foul, and the other team made both free throws, then a three pointer to (eventually, after OT perhaps–the details are grainy to me right now) win the game. I remember thinking that it served them right to do something so stupid before the game was even over.
1986 season (1987 Superbowl). Started as a joke, soon became a Giants tradition, then spread to other teams and sports. Now just stupid.
It may have been done earlier, but the current inane custom dates from the Giants 1986 Superbowl run.