Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers (born October 31, 1941) is a longtime Chicago Cubs fan and local celebrity in the Chicago area. He is known to

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...

visitors for his idiosyncratic cheers at baseball games, generally punctuated with an exclamatory "Woo!" (e.g., "Cubs, woo! Cubs, woo! Big-Z, woo! Zambrano, woo! Cubs, woo!") Longtime Cubs announcer

Harry Caray Harry Christopher Caray (; March 1, 1914 – February 18, 1998) was an American radio and television sportscaster. During his career he called the play-by-play for five Major League Baseball teams, beginning with 25 years of calling the games ...

dubbed Wickers "Leather Lungs" for his ability to shout for hours at a time. Wickers grew up on the South Side of Chicago. Born premature and abused by his mother, he was raised by his grandmother, who brought him to his first Chicago Cubs games during the late 1940s. Wickers explained in a 2004 ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'' interview that he started "wooing" in 1958 or 1959. "It just came to be. I had fun with it," he remarked. He has remained a fixture at Wrigley Field ever since, even singing "

Take Me Out to the Ball Game "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game prior to writing the song ...

" during a May 24, 2001 game. In 2005, filmmaker Paul Hoffman released a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

about Wickers, called ''WooLife''. The film premiered at the

Chicago Historical Society Chicago History Museum is the museum of the Chicago Historical Society (CHS). The CHS was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. The museum has been located in Lincoln Park since the 1930s at 1601 North Clark Street at the int ...

. Wickers worked nights as a

custodian Custodian may refer to: Occupations * Janitor, a person who cleans and maintains buildings * Goalkeeper, in association football * Fullback, in rugby, also called a sweeper * Legal guardian or conservator, who may be called a custodian in some ...

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

for much of his life. After the deaths of both his grandmother and girlfriend in the 1980s, a distraught Wickers found himself homeless and without a stable job. From 1984 to 1990, he attended Cubs games with donated tickets. Wickers was absent at Wrigley Field games for a brief period in 1987, which prompted some Cubs fans to worry that he had died. He eventually contacted news organizations to say that he was alive and well. Since 1990, most of Wickers' income has come from washing windows in the neighborhood around Wrigley Field. He also makes paid appearances at parties and has starred in local commercials. In 2000, Chicago entertainer Erich “ Mancow” Mueller bought Woo Woo a set of dentures to improve his superfan appearance. Mancow spoke about this daily and had Woo Woo in the office and on the air at Q101 many times. Wickers was treated and released from Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical center after being hit by a car after a Cubs game on April 18, 2005. He has since recovered. A minor controversy occurred after April 19, 2017, when Wickers was ejected from a Cubs game for not having a ticket. Wickers said that he had an electronic ticket, on the phone of a friend. According to Cubs management, the friend became verbally abusive when asked to produce the e-ticket, and the two were escorted out of Wrigley Field. Subsequently, Wickers attended a number of Cubs games without further incident. As of 2022, Ronnie is still attending Cubs games, taking pictures with fans and tourists alike.

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Footage of "Woo Woo"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ronnie Woo Woo Baseball spectators Chicago Cubs People from Chicago 1941 births Living people Northwestern University staff Janitors

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