"Airball" & Cameron Crazies

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

    The basketball fans at Duke University's Cameron Indoor Stadium are known as the "Cameron Crazies."  It appears that they invented the "airball" chant.  (At least one of the "coinages" is correct!)  From Dow Jones:

2-12-1985, WASHINGTON POST--To Detlef Schrempf and Christian Welp of the University of Washington, the Dukies yelled airball--in German.

10-2-1987, RECORD (Bergen, NJ), pg. E5--You're in Durham, N.C., smack dab in the middle of the collegiate triangle that encompasses Duke, North Carolina, and North Carolina State.  Suddenly you hear a haunting chant, "Aaairbaaall.  Aaaairbaaaall.  Aaaairbaaall."  You think it must be those basketball-crazy Duke fans trying to intimidate a shooter into missing everything from backboard to rim.  They want to see an "airball."  (Chant extends to Duke football--ed.)

9-13-1995, NEWS & OBSERVER (Raleigh, NC), "'Airball' theorist surprised by fame," pg. A1--The reason for the English professor's fame?  He found that college basketball fans who chant "airball, airball" always start on the F note and end on D, in the pitch of B flat major or D minor. (...) He (former N. C. State University professor Charreill Heaton) recently published an article, "Airball: Spontaneous Large-Group Precision Chanting," in the journal Popular Music and Society.

2-23-1997, PORTLAND OREGONIAN, pg. D01--Butthe Cameron crazies are best known for their chanting rituals.  They invented the "Airball" chant, then abandoned it five years before it became passe.

   Two basketball word lists include "airball."
   The Austin American-Statesman, 3-21-1993, pg. C18, has these terms:  abused; aircraft carrier; air ball; all-airport; alley-oop; bunny; baby j; block; breeze; ball; bad; coast to coast; clotheslined; chicken wing; crier; crunch time; cup; droppin' dimes; disrespected; dish; downtown, D; elevate; flush; French pastry; four corners; game; gimme; gum shield; glass; hang time; housed on; hung; hole; initiate; in your face; J; juke; jam; kiss; kit; killer; loop; lit up; mopped; monster; nailed; nasty; n.c. (no contest); operate; O; paint; post up; PTPer; purple heart; quit; rock; runout; rack; rejection; rookie; ricochet romance; rainbow; rush-hour handle; sky; showtime; schooled; stat sheet stuffer; stop; stopper; skip pass; step up; stiff; stuffed; swingman; string music; trucked; teardrop; transition game; 'tweener; UPS; verts; window; windex; wicked; x's and o's; yellow; zebras; zone.
     The San Diego Union-Tribune, 4-2-1994, pg. C-8, has these terms:  airball; brick; Cameron crazies; da-meat hook; early exit; finisher; game (As in Spike Lee's HE GOT GAME--ed.); hops; intensity; jump shot; kitchen; look; man; net; operate; pine; quote; rock; skills; television timeout; up-tempo; verticality; whoooo pig sooie; x's and o's; yo-yo; zone.