Where were the Clippers Fans 10 years ago?
There is this guy in our office who all of a sudden is a Cleveland Cavaliers fan… You know the type. Someone you have known for years but has never admitted allegiance to any NBA franchise, yet suddenly is a fan of one of the best teams in the NBA.
“What?! Since when do you like the Cavs?”, you ask.
“Since always”, he replies and you think to yourself, ‘wow funny you never mentioned that, when the team sucked’.
THAT is a bandwagon fan.
Please understand I’m not blaming people here. The opportunistic bandwagon phenomenon is as old as sports itself, even if the expression of ‘jumping on a bandwagon’ is fairly young.
So where does the expression we throw around like a frisbee come from originally? Why is ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ even a term?
The original ‘bandwagon’.
The answer to the last question is very easy. It’s a term because ‘becoming-a-fan-of-a-team-just-because-it’s-successful-at-the-moment‘ is too long to throw at people. Something shorter was needed.
But why ‘bandwagon’ and not train, horse or plane?
Here comes the part, where you can impress friends with your knowledge by telling a nice little story…
Once upon a time in 1850 or so, there was this man named Phineas T. Barnum – or better known as P.T. Barnum. He was an American world-famous showman and circus owner. Back in those days, music in a circus was played by a live band.
It’s okay to switch teams. Just don’t do it because of one player.
The wagon that carried the circus band was called the “bandwagon”. These bandwagons attracted a lot of people for the simple reason that once the circus arrived in town the band started playing. Sometimes hundreds of people gathered around the wagon to listen to the music and cheer.
It didn’t take long for politicians to ‘jump on the bandwagon’ to spread their message. Literally climbing on top of the wagon, standing next to the band proclaiming whatever they saw fit. Thus essentially kidnapping something that was very popular for their own agenda, hoping the popularity would somehow transfer.
That’s how ‘bandwagoning’ started and I wish it would have stayed like that. Look below for some awesome examples of bandwagon fans!