| William Grover Hagy | |
| Birth Date: | 17 June 1939 |
| Birth Place: | Edgemere, Maryland, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Arbutus, Maryland, U.S. |
| Other Names: | "Wild Bill" |
| Occupation: | Cab driver |
| Known For: | "O-R-I-O-L-E-S" cheer |
William Grover "Wild Bill" Hagy (June 17, 1939 - August 20, 2007) was an American baseball fan and cab driver from Dundalk, Maryland, who led famous "O-R-I-O-L-E-S" chants during the late 1970s and early 1980s from section 34 in the upper deck at Memorial Stadium.[1]
Hagy grew up in Sparrows Point, Maryland, and drove an ambulance, an ice cream truck, and eventually a cab until he retired in 2004.
Hagy's chants and persona developed him into an icon associated with the Baltimore Orioles for years. While leading cheers from "The Roar from 34" at Memorial Stadium, Wild Bill became a Baltimore institution.
Hagy found the inspiration in his cheers from Leonard "Big Wheel" Burrier, a famous fan who led the Baltimore Colts in similar cheers.
Eventually the team recognized his enthusiasm and let him do his Orioles cheers from atop the dugout. Hagy's fame led him to meet Presidents such as Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and to get writeups in The New York Times.[2] [3]
Hagy and his "rowdies" were also responsible for introducing another Baltimore sports fan tradition: shouting the letter "O" during the national anthem at Baltimore area sporting events.[4] [5] Since its introduction at Orioles games by Wild Bill Hagy et al in 1979, it has been a tradition at Orioles games for fans to accent the line of "Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave" in "The Star-Spangled Banner" by yelling "O!"[6] "O" is not only short for "Oriole," but the vowel is also a stand-out aspect of the Baltimorean accent. This tradition is even carried out during the Orioles' spring training home games in Sarasota, Florida.
The tradition is now carried out at other sporting events, both professional and amateur, and sometimes at non-sporting events where the anthem is played, throughout the Baltimore/Washington area and all over Maryland, notably at Baltimore Ravens and Maryland Terrapins games. Even fans in Norfolk, Virginia chant "O!" even before the Tides became an Orioles affiliate.
In 1985 Orioles team management announced a ban that would prevent Hagy from bringing his own beer into Memorial Stadium. At the end of the last game prior to the ban’s enactment, Hagy downed ten bottles of beer before tossing his cooler onto the field in protest.[7]
Hagy then declared a personal boycott against Memorial Stadium, which he maintained until the stadium’s 1991 closure. [8] Hagy did eventually return to Camden Yards on September 6, 1995 - the night Cal Ripken Jr. broke the longtime record for consecutive games played. [9]
Hagy's last known O-R-I-O-L-E-S cheer was performed at Ripken's Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, New York, on July 29, 2007. He died at his home in Arbutus, Maryland, less than a month after the ceremony, at the age of 68.
Hagy is in the Orioles Hall of Fame.[10]
On Tuesday, June 17, 2008 the Baltimore Orioles honored "Wild" Bill Hagy by handing out honorary #34 T-shirts on their "T-shirt Tuesday."
On Saturday, August 9, 2014 the Orioles honored Hagy with a "Wild Bill" hat give away.[11]