If you've been to a Ravens game at M&T Bank Stadium during the last several years, you've likely seen the middle-aged man with a pot belly, bald head and goatee on the RavensVision video screens leading 70,000-plus fans in a chant of "R-A-V-E-N-S" by contorting his body to form the letters from up in Section 532.
Dan Granofsky, known as "Real Fan Dan," is proudly carrying on the Baltimore sports tradition of blue-collar cheerleaders such as "The Big Wheel" Len Burrier -- who led Colts cheers at Memorial Stadium in the 1970s and 1980s -- and the late "Wild Bill" Hagy -- who led Orioles cheers at the stadium in those same decades -- but with one significant difference: "The Big Wheel" and "Wild Bill" never went topless to encourage the crowd to cheer louder.
Granofsky, 57, began doing the cheer in 1998. Peeling off his No. 33 Ravens jersey -- he chose that number as a tribute to 33rd Street, where Memorial Stadium sat -- and enthusiastically waving it around has been a signature of his crowd-pleasing routine since the latter part of that season.
