h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Fans of the Vancouver Canucks, an NHL hockey team, have use towels to cheer their team on. This started in 1982, when Vancouver was in the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, playing the Chicago Blackhawks. The third game of the series, each team played equally well, but the officiating went decidely against the Canucks. One of their goals got called back due to a "penalty", and on the ensuing power play, the Blackhawks scored. Vancouver was now behind 4-1. The coach, Roger Neilson, in disgust and anger, tied a white towel to a hockey stick and began waving it back and forth, in surrender to the referees. Several players followed suit. Neilson got ejected from the game, and later fined by the NHL.

Nevertheless, at the next game, people sold white towels outside the Pacific Coliseum, then Vancouver's hockey arena. Sixteen thousand fans bought them and waved them, cheering madly, and Vancouver won. (Vancouver won the series, proceeding to the Stanley Cup final, where they lost to the New Jersey Islanders.)

So during the regular season (at least when the players aren't on strike), fans wave white towels a bit. During the playoffs? The ice arena in Vancouver is jam-packed with towel-waving fans.

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