Wild Bill Hagy

William Grover "Wild Bill" Hagy (June 17, 1939 – August 20, 2007) was an American baseball fan and cab driver from Dundalk, Maryland, who led famous "O-R-I-O-L-E-S" chants during the late 1970s and early 1980s from section 34 in the upper deck at Memorial Stadium.

Life
Hagy grew up in Sparrows Point, Maryland, and drove an ambulance, an ice cream truck, and eventually a cab until he retired in 2004.

Chants
Hagy's chants and persona developed him into an icon associated with the Baltimore Orioles for years. While leading cheers from "The Roar from 34" at Memorial Stadium, Wild Bill became a Baltimore institution.

Standing at six feet two inches tall, Hagy was an easily recognized figure at the ball park, always adorned in sun glasses and a straw cowboy-styled hat. Hagy found the inspiration in his cheers from Leonard "Big Wheel" Burrier, a famous fan who led the Baltimore Colts in similar cheers.

“Orioles Magic”
Hagy is said to symbolize the term "Orioles Magic" as his cheers sometimes led to comeback victories for the Orioles. Eventually the team recognized his enthusiasm and let him do his Orioles cheers from atop the dugout. Hagy's fame led him to meet Presidents such as Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and to get writeups in The New York Times.

"O!"
Hagy and his "rowdies" were also responsible for introducing another Baltimore sports fan tradition: shouting the letter "O" during the national anthem at Baltimore area sporting events. Since its introduction at Orioles games by Wild Bill Hagy et al in 1979, it has been a tradition at Orioles games for fans to accent the line of "Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave" in "The Star-Spangled Banner" by yelling "O!" "O" is not only short for "Oriole," but the vowel is also a stand-out aspect of the Baltimorean accent. This tradition is even carried out during the Orioles' spring training home games in Sarasota, Florida.

The tradition is now carried out at other sporting events, both professional and amateur, and sometimes at non-sporting events where the anthem is played, throughout the Baltimore/Washington area and all over Maryland, notably at Baltimore Ravens and Maryland Terrapins games. Even fans in Norfolk, Virginia chant "O!" even before the Tides became an Orioles affiliate. In 1993, at the MLB All-Star game at Camden Yards, before a national television audience, James Earl Jones was invited to speak the national anthem with the Morgan State University choir providing background vocals. Jones was apparently not told of the "O" tradition because when he got to that line in the song, the 48,000 fans yelled "O" and Jones, startled by the occurrence, lost his place in the reading. The Morgan choir, however, covered the fumble and Jones was saved total embarrassment.

Boycott of Memorial Stadium
In 1985, Orioles team management announced a ban that would prevent Hagy from bringing his own beer into Memorial Stadium. At the end of the last game prior to the ban’s enactment, Hagy downed ten bottles of beer before tossing his cooler onto the field in protest.

Hagy then declared a personal boycott against Memorial Stadium, vowing never to return. He maintained this stance until the stadium’s closure in 1991.

Hagy did eventually return to Camden Yards on September 6, 1995 - the night Cal Ripken Jr. broke the longtime record for consecutive games played. In typical fashion, Hagy led the fans in his famous cheer on one of baseball's greatest nights.

Death
Hagy's last known O-R-I-O-L-E-S cheer was performed at Ripken's Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, New York, on July 29, 2007. He died at his home in Arbutus, Maryland, less than a month after the ceremony, at the age of 68.

Orioles honors
Hagy is in the Orioles Hall of Fame.

On Tuesday, June 17, 2008 the Baltimore Orioles honored "Wild" Bill Hagy by handing out honorary #34 T-shirts on their "T-shirt Tuesday."

On Saturday, August 9, 2014 the Orioles honored Hagy with a "Wild Bill" hat give away.