Rally towel

A rally towel is a sports paraphernalia item and a type of towel often used as a fan symbol, in bannerlike fashion, in American and Canadian sports events. The prototype of the modern rally towel was created in 1975 by former Pittsburgh Steelers radio broadcaster Myron Cope and is known as the Terrible Towel. It could be argued the coach E. A. Diddle of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers created the first rally towel in the 1940s. Western Kentucky trademarked the term "The Red Towel" in 1971, four years before Cope created the Terrible Towel.

Since the Terrible Towel's debut, teams have used similar gimmicks, mainly using white towels (or towels with the team's colors) and giving them out to fans. The main time teams give rally towels is during league postseasons. Towels have gained much popularity as distractions to visiting players. Teams that use rally towels include the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, and New York Jets, the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes, and Dallas Stars, the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder, the MLB's Detroit Tigers, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, Houston Astros, and the Washington Nationals, and the NCAA basketball Duke Blue Devils.

Though not known as a rally towel at the time — the concept had not been introduced yet — one of the first recorded regular similar uses of a towel was at Western Kentucky University, where basketball coach E. A. Diddle waved a red towel on the sideline during games. Diddle, who coached at WKU from 1922 to 1964, originally used a plain white towel; the red towel came as a result of an effort to keep students from pilfering towels from the physical education department. A logo featuring the towel is now used by the school's sports teams, most prominently on football helmets.

On December 27, 1975, the Pittsburgh Steelers entered the NFL playoffs against the Baltimore Colts. Two weeks prior to the game, the team's flagship radio station, WTAE, decided to create a gimmick to attract sponsors, with the help of Myron Cope, the Steelers radio broadcaster. They soon hit upon the idea of the Terrible Towel – a gold or yellow towel with the words "The Terrible Towel" printed on the front – which would be marketed to Steelers fans. The idea was criticized by the Steelers and the local press, but on the day of the game, as Cope later recalled: "...the Steelers gathered in the tunnel for introductions, whereupon the crowd exploded—and suddenly, by my estimation, 30,000 Terrible Towels twirled from the fists of fans around the stadium!" The Steelers not only won the game, but went on to win the Super Bowl for the second year running.

Rally towels came to professional hockey by accident in 1982. Outraged by a string of unfavorable calls in a road game during the conference finals, Vancouver Canucks coach Roger Neilson draped a white towel over a player's stick and waved it above his bench in mock surrender. Neilson was ejected and the Canucks lost the game, but the incident restored the team's morale. Fans started waving white towels—first at the airport when the team returned to Vancouver, then at the next game—and "Towel Power" propelled the Canucks to victory in the series.

The first rally towels in baseball came from the Minnesota Twins. The Homer Hanky first appeared during the Twins playoff run in 1987, when they won the World Series.

Today, rally towels are seen in all four major American sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL). They have also been seen in MLS. Almost all MLB teams use rally towels now.

The first rally towel to be used in Major League Baseball (MLB) was the Homer Hanky (a handkerchief printed with the Twins logo) of the Minnesota Twins. It gained popularity throughout the 1987 pennant race as a promotional item created by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The Twins would later go on to win the 1987 World Series. The Homer Hanky has been present in every Twins playoff run since, including during the Twins victory in the 1991 World Series.