Who’s idea was it to bring a sign to a sporting event? After doing some research, it dates back to Ancient Roman times. It appears that fans wanted their favorite gladiators to hear what they were thinking. In a crowd of 30,000 that is quite tough to get across what you are trying to say. So a man by the name of Captineous Yar and his pals Kirkeous and Polish decided it would be a good idea to get some paper and write what they wanted to say. We actually have a photo of that very first sign which can be seen here. Little did they know that they would soon start a cultural phenomenon. Everyone saw their sign and said to themselves, why the hell don’t we do that? Soon everyone was writing their words on big pieces of paper.

This continued for centuries until the Roman Empire fell. People realized that these signs could be used for other uses rather then just at sporting events. On the ancient battlefields when armies were standing across from one another, they would have signs in order to talk shit about each other. Such comments seen were, “After killing you and your soldiers, I will personally shit in each of your mouths.” Such a comment gathered this response, “O yea!? I just raped your dog to get all fired up to chop your head off!” These of course are more extreme cases but you can get the idea of how these signs were used.

Side Note: If you think about it, Pirates technically used their flags as signs…a sign that basically said I’m Gonna Kick Your Ass.

So, this brings us to current day signage at events. Today, people are more green about their use of signs. Instead of wasting paper they just paint themselves with their teams colors, or gather a few friends and paint letters on their chests. This is good and all but sometimes it is unclear as to what they are trying to spell. You have people asking, “Is that a lower case E or a J? I can’t tell because that guys tits are covering the top of the letter!” Some people should just stick to signs and keep their shirts on.

At TCM, we salute the men who invented signs seen at sporting events. It’s a great way to express your feelings. Whether they be happy, angry or sad feelings, let the world know how you feel. So go ahead, grab that piece of oak tag, your sharpie and start writing, you modern day Shakespeare. There are never enough ways to spell out ESPN because Every Special Person Needs attention.