Robin Ficker (with a bugel-like device) back when he used to heckle visiting NBA teams at Washington Bullets' games. Now, he heckles visiting wrestling squads at Terrapin wrestling matches.
Once considered the NBA’s preeminent heckler, Robin Ficker has switched roles and can now stake his claim as the Terrapin wrestling team’s most boisterous supporter.
Ficker first became a known quantity thanks to his choice seats at the US Air Arena, formerly the home of the Washington Bullets. Ficker’s season tickets ended up right behind the visitor’s bench, and he took full advantage. He quickly became the team’s most notorious fan and often drew the ire of opposing teams and fellow fans alike.
We are talking about a guy who got on the nerves of the Zen master himself, Hall of Fame NBA coach Phil Jackson, by reading passages of Jackson’s autobiography aloud during games.
We are also talking about a guy who was so good at heckling, Charles Barkley flew him out to a playoff game so he could sit behind the Chicago Bulls’ bench and taunt Michael Jordan about his gambling habits with huge decks of cards and dice.
Eventually the NBA had enough, and when the Bullets Wizards moved to the MCI Center, they also made sure to move Ficker’s seat from behind the opposing bench to underneath the basket.
Without his usual stomping grounds available to him, the man Red Auerbach once called “a disgrace” has turned his attention to the Terps’ wrestling team.
The move is less improbable than one might think.
Ficker said he first began his career as a wrestling supporter when his son, Flynn Ficker, wrestled for UC-Davis as a heavyweight. He said he used to go to every single one of his son’s matches for five years, including the year he redshirted.
With his son out of college, Ficker’s legendary heckling skills were dormant. Instead, he was content to work as a lawyer in Bethesda and run the steps in Cole Field House. That is until current Terp assistant coach Todd Beckerman, who wrestled with Ficker’s son at Dematha Catholic, suggested he come out to one of the Terps’ meets. He’s been hooked ever since.
I got my first taste of Ficker on Jan. 23 at the dual meet with Duke and NC State in the Comcast Pavilion. Ficker showed up with a Maryland t-shirt and a bugle, the latter of which was taken away by Athletics Department officials after just one sound.
“They called it an artificial noise-maker, but I call it a musical instrument,” Ficker said. “The basketball team gets the band, I don’t get why the wrestling team can’t have their own section as well. The army has been using bugles for years to get guys going.”
Since that incident, Ficker has been following the team with his incessant chants and heckling at every single meet, most recently this weekend. He appeared Friday and Sunday with an enormous Maryland flag. He even got a rise out of the Hofstra bench Sunday, as one assistant coach turned to me and asked if that guy “had been drinking” before the match.
Ficker is not done either. He plans to be in Charlottesville on Saturday when the Terps take on No. 24 Virginia, saying Cavaliers’ fans have been taking it easy. Ficker is going down to show them what true fandom is all about.
“They do have a town named Reston in their state after all,” Ficker said.
Ficker says he has had opposing coaches offer to wrestle him, and is all but certain to draw the ire of the Virginia fans the minute he starts shouting. He has already gotten under the skin of many of his fellow Terp fans as well as a number Athletics Department officials.
Coach Kerry McCoy learned of his loudest supporter’s celebrity status earlier this weekend and has been decidedly diplomatic about the recent support.
“I love that he brings energy into the crowd, and there are times when the guys and I have had to chuckle at some of his phrases,” McCoy said. “There are probably some things we could do without, but I don’t mind the support at all.”
Ficker has a number of choice cheers he is ready to use when he gets to Charlottesville, especially a few puns related to Virginia being the home state of Robert E. Lee. But frankly, it would be a shame for me to ruin them before he even gets a chance to use them.
Ficker said he was speaking to Kurt Klier, the director of Intramural Sports for CRS at the university, and Klier told him nearly 4,000 people used to show up for wrestling matches. Inspired by the story, Ficker is now encouraging everyone he can to go to the wrestling meets and cheer and heckle loudly alongside him, no matter how many people don’t like it.
“Wrestling is a masculine and physical sport,” Ficker said. “And I am going to make sure I cheer accordingly.”
Mike Lemaire is the Terrapin wrestling beat writer. He can be reached at lemaire@umdbk.com