Wild Bill Hagy

William Grover "Wild Bill" Hagy (June 17, 1939 – August 20, 2007) was an American baseball fan and cab driver from Dundalk, Maryland. A superfan of the Baltimore Orioles, he was made famous for leading the "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.

Life Hagy grew up in the working class neighborhood of Sparrows Point, Maryland, adjacent to the steel mills of Baltimore's waterfront. He reportedly was married "more times than Elizabeth Taylor", and worked part-time as a Good Humor man for over a dozen years selling ice cream to children. He was a cab driver for many years. When the Orioles arrived, he immediately became a fan of his new home team.

Hagy's fame began during the 1977 season. The next day, Brooks Robinson gave an interview in the paper saying how much the Orioles cheer meant to him and the players. He received numerous requests for appearances by charitable organizations, including as honorary chairman of the Cerebral Palsy Bowl-a-Thon.

Section 34 Hagy said that ever since he began attending games in 1954, he always sat behind home plate in the upper deck. Starting in 1979, he chose Section 34 down the right field line in the upper deck because it was general admission, and there was a men's room at the bottom of the ramp. It was the power base for Wild Bill, his cheerleaders and his community that spread the enthusiasm for the Orioles. Prior to 1979 the Orioles stadium was rarely sold out and while the sport had fans the city did not have a strong "love affair" with baseball, it was primarily a football town.

Since its introduction at Orioles games by Wild Bill Hagy etal 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!" "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, as well as Baltimore Ravens, Maryland Terrapins, and other sporting events for Maryland-based teams, including away appearances in other states.

Boycott of Memorial Stadium 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.

Hagy then declared a personal boycott against Memorial Stadium, which he maintained until the stadium’s 1991 closure. Hagy returned to Camden Yards on September 6, 1995 – the night Cal Ripken Jr. broke the longtime record for consecutive games played.

Death 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.

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.