Augustana men’s basketball has thrived in it’s history at the Carver Center which now goes back more than 40 years. While the five Vikings on the court have been the driving factor behind their wins, the one catalyst of the team is the Carver Crazies.
The Carver Crazies are the fans in the Roy J. Carver Center that sit across from the Vikings bench during home games. Whether it be a crowd of five or twenty, the crazies cheer on their peers in their games. The history of the Carver Crazies goes back many years.
Dave Wrath, Associate Director of Athletics and head of Media & Alumni Relations, said he is unaware of the origins of the term “Carver Crazies” but speculates that it came from one of the local TV stations that were covering Augustana basketball games.
Wrath has been working in the Augustana Athletics Department for the past 35 years and recalled his favorite moments from the “Carver Crazies.”
“The loudest I have ever heard from Carver was in the 1981 NCAA Division III Final Four when Augustana beat Otterbein on a Friday night. That game set an NCAA Division III attendance record which stood for almost twenty years.”
While that 1981 Final Four game was jam packed and supported by many, Wrath remembers the “Carver Crazies” being particularly crazy on Dec. 10, 2014. Augustana beat the defending Division III National Champions, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 96-94 in double overtime. This also included a 41-point game from 2016 Augustana graduate Hunter Hill. Wrath describes the student section that game as “one of the most engaged student sections (he) ever witnessed.”
Wrath also recognized that recent Elite Eight games (2011, 2015, 2016) were very noisy as well.
Sophomore and basketball fan Juwon Johnson describes the “Carver Crazies” as “truly spirited” and “relentless supporters of the basketball program.”