Cameron Crazies

There are obviously many crazy fan bases throughout the world of sports, but towards the top of that list would have to be the Cameron Crazies.  They are loyal student supporters of the Duke University Men’s Basketball team.  Cameron Indoor Stadium is home to Duke’s entire basketball program.  The coined phrase, “Cameron Crazies,” has been used to describe the Blue Devil’s devoted fan section for many years.

            As you can see from the picture, they have many rituals such as making it seem as if they are about to suck the opposing player into their clutches or something.  They obviously have other chants and traditional fight songs like any other renowned University.  Now, this group is pretty much made up of all student season ticket holders.  Chris Cusack wrote an article for The Chronicle and he said, while the number has declined, there are still about 650 students who have season tickets and attend each home game.  There are also 550 general admission tickets for the student section that they sell each game because their goal is to fill the 1200 seat student section with rowdy Cameron Crazies.  Those tickets aren’t necessarily cheap either, so we would classify these fans as first-person supporters.  This mode of fan consumption means they love being at every game and witnessing events first-hand.  “First-person supporters often consider themselves to be ‘true fans’ because they are there in the down times as well as the good” (Billings, Butterworth, and Turman).  This perfectly sums up any season ticket holders of any team, just like the Cameron Crazies. 

            Now, there are different motivations for fan consumption as outlined in our book by Billings, Butterworth, and Turman.  Behavioral motivations such as companionship and group affiliation are both motivations that can be applied to explain why Cameron Crazies choose to be so crazy.  First of all, those are both very similar and can be interrelated.  For example, you find companionship with the people you meet at the game and in the student section, and you’re obviously part of a large group of 1000+ other crazies.  Only people in the group know the different chants and hand signals, thus bringing them closer together.  They also feel as if they are there to complete a mission or goal, and that is to help their team achieve victory!  Fandom brings people closer together and makes them feel part of something bigger than themselves, and The Cameron Crazies are the epitome of dedicated sports fans.