College basketball is great for the length that fans will go to in order to distract the other team, but during “championship week,” one Pitt fan found a new way to let their voice be heard above all others by belting classic ’90s rock songs.
For fans of Pittsburgh sports, this may not be something new, but Pitt senior drum major Soren Henkle saw his voice recognized on a national stage as he began belting the Goo Goo Dolls’ 1998 chart-topper, “Iris,” during a Stanford free throw attempt, much to the amusement of the announcers at the ACC Tournament.
“It’s a really powerful song. It’s kind of in my vocal range as well, I’d say, but I don’t know if people would agree,” Henkle told The Athletic (via The New York Times). “I messed up the words a little, I think. But it’s a classic. Most of the people in the stadium will know it. Most of the people in the band will know it.”
“Okorie hits the free throw despite the presence of a really loud guy singing Goo Goo Dolls behind us. I’m not sure how that didn’t throw him off,” shared the announcer on the ACC Network broadcast as his partner chuckled along.
The moment would even later catch the attention of the Goo Goo Dolls themselves, who noted, “And it didn’t even throw him off,” while also sharing a series of cry laughing emojis. But this was just the beginning of our hero heckler’s musical journey over the course of the game and the week.
What Other ’90s Rock Songs Were Used to Distract Players?
Within the Pitt-Stanford game itself, Henkle and some of his fellow band members leaned into their love of ’90s rock singing Creed’s “Higher” and The Cranberries’ “Linger” which managed to echo throughout the arena for the neutral court game.
READ MORE: 30 Songs From the ’90s You’ll Recognize From the First Few Notes
Of Creed’s “Higher,” Henkle shares, “That’s just fun to sing and it captures people’s attention.” His fellow bandmate Nicholas Morris added to The Athletic, “That one’s really fun because we do the accent with it.”
How a New Pitt Tradition Began
As stated, the belting of popular rock songs is nothing new for Pitt’s band members, who reportedly broke it out for the first time while last October while attending one of the university’s volleyball games. They then started to employ the distraction technique on different occasions during the Pitt basketball team’s season this year before their recent singing appearance at the ACC tournament was noticed on a more national level.
“We did it occasionally during the season to try and get in their head a little bit. It was spur of the moment,” shared Nicholas Morris, the junior trombone player. “We thought it’d be kind of funny.”
You can debate whether or not their distraction technique worked, as Stanford went 5 of 6 from the free throw line during the game. But the one miss came as the band members were belting The Cranberries’ “Linger” and Pitt eventually emerged victorious with a last second shot to win 64-63.
“It’s silly. I love college basketball, especially for stuff like this,” Henkle said. “It’s March.”
While the Panthers may have gotten past Stanford, they fell to NC State 98-88 on Wednesday, but not before the band got in some a capella renditions of Creed’s ‘One Last Breath” and the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way.”
Below check out our list of the 75 Best Rock Songs of the ’90s.
75 Best Rock Songs of the ’90s
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Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire