10 Most Famous Sports Fans

By Paulie Knep
Love of Sports Correspondent

Fans play a significant role at sporting events. They can effect the outcome of a game by inspiring the home team or by distracting an opposing team or player.

While they generally don’t make their individual presence felt, every so often a fan stands out from the crowd by interacting with a player, entering the field, or with his strange appearance. Some such fans have attained semi-celebrity status as a result of their antics.

The average sports fan may not even know the names of these high profile fans, but he instantly recognizes them and recalls their famous incidents.

The 10 Most Famous/Infamous Fans

10. “The Heckler”

For 12 years, Robin Ficker, a lawyer from Maryland, sat behind the visiting team’s bench at Bullets/Wizards games and relentlessly heckled their players. He typically wore a homemade Bullets shirt and occasionally used a rubber chicken as a prop. In response to Ficker, the NBA added a section to season ticket applications prohibiting fans from verbally abusing the players. When the Wizards moved to the MCI Center in 1997, ownership relocated Ficker’s seats, in response to complaints, and he subsequently stopped attending games.

9. “Fan Man”

On November 6, 1993, during a title bout between Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe, James Miller descended towards the ring at Caesar’s Palace in a parachute powered by a fan. The chute got tangled in the lights above the ring and “Fan Man” was caught in the ropes. After recovering from shock, Bowe’s corner proceeded to beat Miller so badly he had to be taken to a hospital. At least they won one fight that night. Fan Man repeated the feat at a Raiders game two months later.

8. Deranged Steffi Graf Fan

On April 30, 1993, Gunter Parche stabbed Monica Seles in the back during a changeover in a match played in Hamburg, Germany. Parche was a Steffi Graf fan who resented Seles for seizing Graf’s #1 world ranking. Seles didn’t play tennis for two years and was never the same player again. Shockingly, Parche didn’t receive any jail time for his crime.

7. Disabled Cobb Victim

Whenever baseball fans refer to Ty Cobb’s mean demeanor they begin with the story of Claude Lueker. On May 12, 1912, Lueker sat in one of the front rows at the Polo Grounds for a game between the Yankees and Cobb’s Tigers. He proceeded to insult Cobb, at which point Cobb climbed into the stands and began beating him. When another fan yelled that Lueker had no hands, Cobb shouted, “I don’t care if he has no feet” and continued pounding away.

6. Jeffrey Maier

The Yankees were trailing the Orioles 4-3 in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 1996 ALCS at Yankee Stadium when Derek Jeter hit a deep fly ball to right field. Baltimore right fielder Tony Tarasco camped under it and was about to make the catch when 12-year-old Jeffrey Maier reached over the right field wall and pulled the ball into the stands. The umpire incorrectly ruled it a home run, and the Yankees went on to win the game and the series. Maier became a part of Yankee lore and continues to draw the ire of Yankee haters across the globe.

5. Morganna The Kissing Bandit

This buxom blond was famous in the ‘70s and ‘80s for running onto the field at baseball games in a skimpy outfit and planting a big smooch on a player’s lips. Her first “victim” was Pete Rose during a game at Riverfront Stadium in 1971. Some of the other athletes she puckered up to were George Brett, Cal Ripken, Jr., Don Mattingly, Nolan Ryan and Charles Barkley. Morganna parlayed her fame into appearances on both the Johnny Carson and David Letterman shows.

4. The World’s Most Prolific Streaker

Mark Roberts is the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Prolific Streaker” and has become a celebrity in England. He’s exposed himself at over 200 sporting events since 1993, including Wimbledon, the British Open, numerous soccer matches, the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona and Super Bowl XXXVIII. Roberts recently stated, “Life is getting too serious at this point. I want to remind people we can still laugh. And I don’t care where you’re from. When you see me with my clothes off, you’re going to laugh.”

3. Rainbow Man

With his rainbow-colored afro wig and John 3:16 signs, Rollen Stewart stood out from the crowd at numerous nationally televised sporting events during the late ‘70s and ‘80s. Rainbow Man was spotted at the World Series, the Indy 500, the Kentucky Derby, the NBA Finals, the Olympics and even made an appearance at the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. He was even parodied by Christopher Walken in a “Saturday Night Live” skit. Stewart’s now serving three consecutive life sentences for kidnapping. I wonder how he wears his hair for the boys in the joint.

2. Hammerin’ Hank’s Fans

Nobody knows their names or where they’re from, and with their shaggy ‘70s hairdos it’s even difficult to determine their gender, but we’ve all seen them a thousand times. I’m talking about the two fans who ran alongside Hank Aaron as he rounded the bases after hitting his record-breaking 715th home run. We see their grinning faces every time a network airs the historic blast. The anonymous fans simply patted Aaron on the back, as if they were old friends of his and were supposed to be there. As a kid, I assumed Aaron was from a bi-racial family and the two men were his brothers.

1. Steve Bartman

The Cubs led the Marlins 3-0 in the eighth inning of Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS and were just five outs away from advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1945. It was then that Luis Castillo hit a pop foul down the left field line. Cubs’ left fielder Moises Alou reached into the stands at “the not-so-friendly confines” of Wrigley Field to make the play, but Steve Bartman, a 26-year-old Cub fan, tried to catch the ball and inadvertently knocked it away from him. The Cubs fell apart after that, losing the game and the series. Bartman was lampooned by the media and became public enemy No. 1 in Chicago. Let it go Cub fans. Blaming this guy for the ‘03 collapse is as ridiculous as attributing 100 years of futility to a billy goat.

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(I guarantee you quite a few of these fans were drinking some kind of cold beverage before making themselves famous. Our sister site, The Love of Beer, can help you decide which beers to drink, or avoid, if such a situation pops up in your life! Check it out!)