Traditions - The Mosh (part 2). A response from James Graham, '04

So in my previous post, I tried to give some info about the nature of the pre-game mosh. I also, admittedly, was a bit shaky on its history. I suspected it might be a little older than my time. I contacted James Graham, an '04 alum, to get his take on it. Here are some of the highlights of his response (I've inserted some info in bold for clarification):

"2002/2003 was the season that the student section general admission (and thus, the line waiting) began.

Before that, it was all assigned seating, so a lot [students] would not get to their front seats until well after the game started.

The moshing did not start, however, in 02-03 (which was also the Champ year). Mostly because we were still developing the art of line waiting, testing the limits of others, or not yet willing to skip classes. As a result, the members of the front row often changed. But as that was going on, myself, the Craig Nasties (i didn't know them personally yet), and others started one-upping each other with getting in line earliest.

Note: we'll talk about the Craig Nasties and their legacy in a later post.

The NEXT year (2003/2004), it so happened to be that Tibs (Jeff Tiberii) and I were both RAs (Resident Advisors) in DellPlain, and all the Craig Nasties lived there as well. We decided to join forces to monopolize the front row, and after a few games the gentleman's agreements as to who's groups sat where were formed. (we tried to avoid overnights, Bobby (Bobby Patrick VI) changed that)

I'm not sure who specifically could be credited with starting the mosh. The easiest answer is that we all love the Road to the Final Four song, and it just got us AMPED. I know Matt Blitz liked to jump around like a Cameron Crazy, and perhaps that rubbed off on us.

On the whole, we always tried to break from the mold of normal fans and be as irreverent as possible. There are hundreds of pics of us just mugging for the camera instead of smiling."

So, there you have it. Since the start of it, the mosh has grown to be almost a rite of initiation for those crazy enough to sacrifice lots of time to be in the front. James actually had a lot of other interesting tidbits in his message to be, some of which I'll get to later.