Prior to the season, Bogut bought 100 season tickets for what he hoped would be the loudest, craziest and most dedicated Bucks fans. The catch was, they had to come to each game and, well... be goofy.
With 14 home games in the books, Squad 6 has become an impossible-to-miss presence in the Bradley Center, which, let's face it, can from time to time, be a little dull during games.
A cross between a college student section and soccer hooligans, these fans are on their feet the entire game, blowing horns, leading chants and injecting some much-needed life into the Bradley Center.
Bogut got the idea by combining two very opposite experiences. In Milwaukee, he noticed many weekday nights where smaller crowds at the Bradley Center were fairly quiet. That's a sharp contrast to his experiences playing in Europe, where fans often bring noisemakers, flares and chant and scream for the game's duration.
"Weeknight games in Milwaukee are tough for people to get to sometimes," Bogut says. "Being a smaller market, there are some empty seats. It was very loud, so I thought we needed something to help the atmosphere here and get some people that would just cheer."
So far, so good. The group is close to 100 percent capacity, with about 85 members in attendance per game. Auditions are still being accepted, says Zak Grim, the Squad 6 director.
"Fans can still send us videos or essays explaining why they should be a part of Squad 6."
Attendance is taken to make sure fans are using their tickets. The bar codes are scanned and tracked in a database and members also have to check in with Grim. After three unexcused absences, they lose their tickets.
"It's a three strikes and you're out system," Grimm says. "So far, though, we haven't had any problems."
The group is bringing attention to the Bucks who, with surprising play early on and a star-in-the-making in rookie point guard Brandon Jennings, are gaining more headlines that usual.
The New York Times recently ran a story on Squad 6 and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was impressed by the group's enthusiasm when his team came to the Bradley Center earlier this season.
"Those fans were the most fun fans I have seen on the road EVER. It made the atmosphere 100x better. More PBR for them," Cuban said on his Twitter account after the Mavericks' 115-113 overtime victory.
Squad 6 was in full force during a double-overtime victory over Portland on Dec. 12 and, for the first time this season, the energy from the group got the entire Bradley Center involved.
"I think I lost about 500 calories that game," says Squad 6 member Melanie Markovina.
The highlight of the group's season came near the end of the first overtime.
The Bucks were down, 95-93, with 4.9 seconds to play. After Carlos Delfino's missed shot was tipped out of bounds, officials awarded the ball to Portland but opted for a video review.
While the officials checked the replay, Squad 6 started chanting "that way," pointing towards the Bucks' end of the floor. The chant caught on and the entire Bradley Center joined in, nearly blowing the roof off the place when the call was reversed.
"That was great," says General Manager John Hammond. "If you want to talk about the influence Squad 6 has had on this building, that was it right there."
My friend Adam McCalvy, Brewers beat writer for MLB.com, is a big believer in the theory that sportswriters should attend at least one game a year as a fan.
To be honest, I wasn't in 100 percent agreement with him as over the course of time, you kind of grow a little numb to game outcomes, focusing instead on writing clean copy within the parameters of deadlines.
I wasn't really sure what to expect. It had been a long, long time since I went to any kind of game as a fan. What was really weird was wearing Bucks apparel to the game. I didn't think I even owned anything that said "Bucks" on it, so my first order of business was to go shopping.
I ended up with a hat and a hoodie and, as luck would have it, I actually found some Bucks gear when I got home. It was packed in a box, stashed in the back of my closet with a bunch of other things I didn't know I had.
(Now you know why the clothes I bought in the video differ from what I wear to the game.)
Now properly attired, it was time to head out for pregame festivities. Before most games, Squad 6 members descend on a number of Downtown bars, both on Old World 3rd and Water Streets. I met up with Squad 6 member Melanie Markovina beforehand and picked her brain a little bit.
Markovina has been a Bucks fan her whole life and has a picture of herself with Bango at age three. She had planned to attend a number of games this season anyway, but had to get involved when she heard about Squad 6.
"I went to a pair of games in place of somebody that couldn't make it," she says. "I auditioned after that and haven't missed a game since."
She is still very impressed that Bogut would make such a commitment to fans. Tickets in the Squad 6 section run between $65-$96, according to Bucks Vice President John Steinmiller, a fact that isn't lost on its members.
"It says a lot about him," Markovina says. "He knows a lot of us couldn't usually afford those tickets, so it makes for a really amazing experience.
"He's amazing for doing that. It shows that he loves this team and he loves Milwaukee."
One of her friends was watching the game when he saw her on TV. It didn't take long for Durell Purdy to get involved, himself. He showed up before the Cleveland game for his audition, during which he opted to go shirtless, despite bitter cold.
"I've been a Bucks fan all my life so I told them that I'd get naked for the Bucks," he says. "That pretty much was my ‘in' right there."
After some ribbing from my peers in the media room, I headed up to section 216 and settled in beside Markovina and Purdy.
They both very much looked the part of confident veterans while I... well, let's just say I was a little rusty. It didn't take me long to figure out the basic chants.
"You, you, you... allllll you" to opposing players after a foul; "(which way?) THAT WAY" after a turnover and then there were specialized chants for specific players, like "Turkish thunder" whenever Ersan Ilyasova hit a shot or quacking - a la "The Mighty Ducks" for Luke Ridnour (he went to Oregon).
"We do a lot of call and response chants," he explains. "Those are usually our best because they're simple and easy enough for everybody to catch on."
"The goal isn't just to have one section of loud, cheering fans. Our goal is to come up with things and get the whole Bradley Center involved."
It's pretty much a free-for-all, but Grimm and other cheerleaders are on the lookout for over-the-edge comments. Chants about a player's family or other personal affair are, for the most part, off-limits.
"While the game operations department has asked us to keep it clean, we are representing the Bucks organization and Andrew Bogut, himself," Grimm says. "This is his money, his name and number attached to it."
During the Lakers game, Squad 6 chanted "Hennessy" at Los Angeles center Ron Artest, who earlier this season suggested he occasionally drank during halftime of games while he was with the Chicago Bulls.
The chants have caused a few laughs around players on the court. Squad 6 serenaded Cleveland's LeBron James with chants of "New York, New York" during the game and also reminded former Bucks guard Mo Williams about his "hairy shoulders."
When Joaquin Noah was in town with the Bulls, Squad 6 sang "dude looks like a lady," in reference to Noah's long, stringy hair.
"They may do some chants and say some things I may not be that fond of or wish they didn't say, but they've brought excitement into the building," says head coach Scott Skiles. "There's no question about that."
Once I was up-to-speed on the chants, I started to worry less about looking like a dork. Realizing some of my media buddies were having a good laugh watching me attempt to fit in (we were questioning your vertical, Fox 6's Jen Lada told me later), I found myself forgetting that I was a reporter on assignment during the final minutes of regulation.
By the time the game went to overtime, I could barely speak anymore, but it was worth it. Purdy and Markovina were screaming at the top of their lungs, doing everything they could to will the Bucks to victory.
In the end, it wasn't meant to be. The Bucks lost a close game, 107-106, on Kobe Bryant's buzzer-beater. Squad 6 was dejected. They weren't ticked off, weren't whining about a bad (really bad) call against Bogut in the final moments, they didn't rag Ilyasova for missing a pair of clutch free throws... they were just genuinely bummed out over the loss, Milwaukee's second in a row.
I think that is what stood out the most for me. I've questioned, over the years, whether Milwaukee is really an NBA city anymore. The Bucks have struggled for years and the Bradley Center hasn't been hopping since the 2001 playoffs.
I'd wondered if anybody really, truly cared anymore and now, I have my answer.
In other NBA cities, a group like Squad 6 would probably be considered, to steal a baseball term, ‘bush,' but in Milwaukee, it works. A blue-collar city with blue-collar fans that want a winner.
"The Lakers and Cavaliers," Purdy says, have sold-out buildings every night, but they don't have a section of dedicated fans like this that's constantly cheering."
Says Markovina: "People know now how dedicated we are. We get compliments after every game, so we must be doing something right."
It's a bit of a reach to suggest that the Bucks' 9-5 home record is correlated to the group of screaming fans in section 216, but the impact they've had on the season so far is encouraging to the franchise.
"Just like we have a leader on the court in our point guard," says guard Charlie Bell, "Squad 6 is the leader in the stands."
OnMilwaukee.com's Andrew Wagner joins Squad 6:
(video courtesy of Matt Stanton, Bucks.com)
