If you ask Seattle Seahawks fans how their team made it to the Super Bowl, they would no doubt point to the power of "the 12th man," as the raucous fan base is known. The noise generated by the crowds at home games drives visiting teams to distraction, much to the delight of the 11 Seahawks on the field.
The Seahawks have referred to their die-hard fans collectively as "the 12th man" since the early 1980s, using the phrase in promotions and stadium displays and even retiring the number "12" jersey in gratitude. But in 2006, the last time Seattle made it to the Super Bowl, the team was taken to court by Texas A&M University, which had trademarked the phrase in 1990. Ultimately, the Seahawks agreed to pay Texas A&M an upfront licensing fee of $100,000 and a subsequent $5,000 a year.
For the Aggies of A&M, "the 12th man" is an unassailable element of the school's identity.According to Aggie lore, it all started in a January 1922 game in which the coach found himself short on players in a big game and ended up recruiting a student named E. King Gill from the stands. Gill suited up and stood by the sidelines, the story goes. Though he never played, his willingness to support his team made him a legendary figure at A&M. A statue of Gill was erected outside of the football stadium, and fans stand throughout home games in his honor.
A&M's claim to the trademark on "the 12th man" rests on the legendary 1922 game giving birth to the expression. But in recent years a University of Texas alumnus who writes under the pen name Randolph Duke has been poking holes in the story. He uncovered a 1912 article in The Iowa Alumnus in which "the loyal spirited Iowa rooter" is called "the 12th man on the team." And even earlier than that, in 1900, a magazine from the University of Minnesotareferred to "the mysterious influence of the 12th man on the team, the rooter."
Referring to impassioned fans as "the 12th man" took hold in football-crazy Texas in the 1920s, and not just at A&M. The earliest example from A&M comes from a November 1921 issue of the college newspaper The Battalion. The timing is a bit troublesome for the Aggies' accepted version of events, as it was a few months before the game that supposedly started it all.
Adding to the historical murk, recollections from Gill and others were gathered decades later. Gill himself said the "12th man" legend originated in a 1939 radio play.
Despite the recent evidence, Shane Hinckley, A&M's interim vice president of marketing and communications, stands by the trademark claim. "We have the longest continued use of the 12th Man mark, dating back to 1922," he said.
--Ben Zimmer is the executive producer of Vocabulary.com and VisualThesaurus.com.
