Every year, thousands of people jump on a certain sports team's bandwagon if their state's team makes it far enough into the season. While this happens in every city and state, no one has mastered the art of bandwagoning sports teams like Chicago has. Across every sport, from hockey to baseball, the population of Chicago has the unimaginable power to unite the entire area with one common goal: support your teams until death (or the end of the season) and do you part.
To take it way back, Chicago citizens bandwagoned teams before social media was even invented. In Super Bowl XX, the 1985 season, the Bears beat the Patriots with an impressive score of 46 to 10. What's even more impressive, however, were the crowds that showed up to watch the game and celebrate the win. This Super Bowl was the first one in history to pass up over 90 million viewers--now, one could say this is because of the Patriots, but knowing the power of proud Chicagoans, I'm going to credit this feat to bandwagoning fans of the Bears.
After the Bears became champions, swarms of people flooded the victory parade. Crowds surrounded the buses as they went through the streets because hey, it's the 1980s and no one cared to put up guard rails yet to keep the crowds back.
Now, to bring it to more recent times, Chicagoans have continued to strengthen their talent of bandwagoning any Chicago team that does well in their season. In 2005, the White Sox swept the World Series and won. In the victory parade, it is estimated that over 1.75 million people were lined up along the streets of the downtown.
Considering that if one went to a Sox game at the beginning of the season only approximately an eighth of the seats would be taken, gathering a crowd of almost two million people is quite the task. Chicagoans seem to forget about their baseball teams until one of them starts to do well--then suddenly the whole town is abuzz with excitement for the team's chance at winning the championship.
Even crazier than the 2005 Sox championship is the 2015 Blackhawks Stanley Cup championship. Before the Hawks started to have success in the 2010s, most Chicagoans probably couldn't even tell you what the Hawks' jersey looked like. However, the moment the Hawks began to win continuously and take the Stanley Cup home multiple times, their number of fans skyrocketed. Ask anyone walking down Madison Street if they own a Blackhawks jersey and they will probably reply with a resounding yes.
After the win in 2015, millions of people flooded the streets of the city. At the official rally--yes, they got so into the team that the city decided just a parade wasn't enough, a rally was needed--over 2 million people squeezed into Soldier Field to catch a glimpse of the players while thousands more waited outside.
A few days ago the Cubs won the World Series after a dry spell lasting one hundred years. The Cubs had never been extremely popular, until three weeks ago. Lines of people waited outside of Dicks Sporting Goods to grab Cubs gear to wear to the games and parties. People drove out to Cleveland to watch their new favorite team play.
The victory parade hasn't happened yet, but, knowing Chicago, the streets will be full of people packed like sardines waiting to catch just a glimpse of their winning team drive by, basking in their championship.
People of this city hold great pride and seeing any of their teams be successful instantly turns them into a fan. That's part of what makes Chicago sports so exciting. Having the whole city unite to support our great teams and come together to celebrate a win is exhilarating and unbeatable.
When the Cubs victory parade happens in the near future, you might see me out there, with the Cubs t-shirt I just bought, yelling "go Cubs go!" with the rest of the crowd. I can't help but bandwagon, it's in a Chicagoan's blood.
