Mizzou's Notorious Antler Group Subject of ESPN's "Outside the Lines"

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The Antlers were formed in 1976 when a small section of 11 courtside seats in the school's basketball arena at that time, Hearnes Center, was made available to all students. At the time, all other prime level seating was reserved for alumni and major financial contributors. A lottery was held for the seats and the winners, including Antler co-founders Jeff Gordon (now a sportswriter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) and Rob “The Hammer” Banning, decided to go all-out with their cheering style to celebrate the new seating arrangement.

Wild costume and constant taunting of opponents gained media exposure for the Antlers. As they became more organized and their pranks became more colorful, they gained national exposure from articles about them in Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News. In the mid-1980s, USA Today even named The Antlers as one of the top five fan groups in the nation.

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The name Antlers, having nothing to do with the University of Missouri, stems from a dance being performed by the Antlers during a basketball game. The dance closely resembled one from a skit from the 9/18/76 Lily Tomlin Saturday Night Live episode that had recently aired. In the skit, Tomlin danced with her hands at the side of her head, fingers outstretched like she had antlers. Antler founders Gordon and Banning watched the skit in the third floor lounge of Hudson Hall and took the idea to one of their first games as an official group. During the "Missouri Waltz" (a racist state song that identifies with the pro-slavery south) members of the new group performed their new dance with their hands at their head like antlers. A member of press row noticed them doing the dance and dubbed them the Antlers. The Antlers continue to do the Antler dance to this day.

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On March 9, 2003, KU played MU in Columbia. Members from the Antlers greeted the KU players at the hotel, holding up signs that read "Plane Crash." These signs were also evident during a nationally televised game. The "Plane Crash" signs were in reference to Nick Collison's senior day speech, where he talked about his grandfather who was a World War II veteran. According to Collison, his grandfather's plane crashed during D-Day, but survived

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the time the Antlers really crossed the line, in Richardson's estimation, came when the coach stepped off a team bus and was greeted by a pack of students wielding a hog-ka-bob -- a freshly slaughtered hog's head on a stick.

"He was holding it and shaking it and saying 'This is what is going to happen to you,' " Richardson said.

According to published reports, blood from the boar's head ruined Richardson's $900 suit.

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It's no secret in Columbia, MO that the Antlers practice a form of Satanism and occultism. Rumors suggest blood rituals performed in nearby caves at 3:00AM on the 23rd of each month.

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