The Foam Finger is a pop culture mainstay—with an inspirational history
The Foam Finger is a fairy-tale fable of frenzy and fortune.
BY REID CREAGER
Whether you’re thumbs-up or thumbs-down on it, they keep giving us the finger.
The giant Foam Finger is ubiquitous and arguably obnoxious in modern culture—most notably at sporting events, where its wearers wave support for their No. 1 team while blocking the view of anyone behind them who isn’t 8 feet tall. It’s soft, durable and inexpensive (albeit unwieldy). It can be fashioned in any number of ways, as evidenced by a national AT&T commercial that aired last year.
The fingers also show up at political rallies. Companies make and sell them as ways to promote other companies. The GEICO gecko once pulled a green one (of course) from a briefcase.
So, who is the inventor of this finger fad? And should said inventor be famed, or shamed?
First finger
Although the media often does not make this distinction, there are two “braintrusts” behind the finger: the person who originated the idea of the giant hand and “No. 1” finger to use at an event, and the innovator who came up with the idea to make the hand out of foam.
In 1971, Ottumwa (Iowa) High School student Steve Chmelar built a giant hand out of hardware cloth, papier-mâché, spray paint and a red marker for the boys’ state basketball finals. Proof of his creation exists via an Associated Press photo, as well as one in the Des Moines Tribune and his high school yearbook. The finger/hand appeared only twice and was retired.
Wikipedia generously refers to that project as the first prototype foam finger. But there is no evidence that Chmelar—who later earned two patents for a concrete forming system called Riser Solutions, used for constructing tiered concrete —intended to convert the finger and hand he made into foam.
In an interview with FOX Sports seven years ago, Chmelar said he never received any royalties from his idea before or after it was repurposed via foam. “But it’s just a matter of satisfaction. It was fun to do it and create it, and it’s certainly rewarding to see what it’s become and the variations of it.”
First foam finger
Geral Fauss, on the other hand, made a lot in royalties. Millions.
Like Chmelar, his first effort was not made of foam.
An industrial arts teacher at Cy-Fair High School in Cypress, Texas, in 1978, he saw students in the stands at sporting events shouting “We’re number 1” and holding up their index fingers. He told web magazine Designboom that in a school-spirit gesture and to raise funds for the industrial arts club, he created a one-dimensional, oversized layout of a hand making the “number one” sign. Students used the design to create wooden cutouts painted with the #1 symbol in Cy-Fair’s colors.
They sold out quickly. Fauss saw a bigger opportunity when the University of Texas played Notre Dame in the 1978 Cotton Bowl.
What followed is a Hollywood-style tale of entrepreneurial grit and luck.
Introbiz.tv reported that in three weeks before the game, Fauss jigsawed 400 finger signs out of Masonite in his garage—200 with the No. 1 finger and 200 in the Longhorns’ famous “hook ‘em” symbol.
Then, per Designboom, he got a friend to go with him to the game. “They hung out all night in the parking lot in a cold camper van, nearly setting it on fire when one of their pillows got too close to the portable heater, and the next morning Fauss talked a concessions manager into letting him sell the hands through the concession stand at a 60-40 split. He sold out before the game started.”
Fauss quit his job. He took an old building that had been the site of his father’s sheet metal business and converted it into a factory. He and his father experimented with better designs—Masonite was too hard to be in big crowds—eventually settling on the polyurethane foam design with the opening in the bottom in 1979. He registered copyrights for the “#1 hand.”
Spirit Hands Co. was born and was incorporated in Montgomery, Texas, as Spirit Industries in 1980. Public records show that as of Sept. 15 this year, Fauss was still president of the company, which licenses production of the Foam Finger to other companies.
Lightweight legacy
Hands down, the legacy of the Foam Finger is controversial. But it is part of Americana and even the Pro Football Hall of Fame; you can pick up a Hall of Fame Wooden Finger Coaster for $9.99.
The entrepreneurial and inventive spirit of Geral Fauss is not in dispute. And at least he didn’t invent the air horn.