Completed Event: General versus Arizona on January 18, 2002
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How The Tradition of Flashing the U Began
9/27/2022 11:30 AM | General, Gymnastics
Hand signals between gymnast Melissa Vituj and loyal supporter John Bircumshaw innocently popularized one of the U’s greatest traditions
Last In A Nine-Part Series
By Dirk Facer
Isn't it interesting how things come to be?
An idea is conceived, implemented, reworked … sometimes in ways never imagined … and then it happens. It takes off like fans doing the wave at the stadium.
When it comes to the University of Utah’s “Flashing the U,” the story follows a similar path.
The symbol began showing up at Ute basketball games during the 1997-98 season, when members of the cheerleading squad would form the shape of a U with their hands above their heads on free throw attempts, then bring them down and yell “Utes” in unison on makes.
That's how it existed for a few years. But its popularity took a major upswing when Ute athletes started using it as a way to interact with fans.
This part of the evolution started with gymnastics. More specifically, it was used as a form of communication between a gymnast from Michigan and an ardent supporter of the program. However, their interactions didn't have much to do with Utah, at least at first.
Their ritual began in 2001 when Melissa Vituj was a freshman at the U. Her parents came into contact with John Bircumshaw, who regularly joins other fans in backing the team for meets at home and on the road. The retired journeyman lineman for Utah Power and Light is joined by his wife, Georgia, in supporting the program.
Bircumshaw learned that throughout Melissa’s gymnastics career, her parents conveyed support to the gymnast via hand signals from the stands. Bill and Carol Vituj would sign “I love you” to their daughter.
Melissa Vituj (left) and John Bircumshaw (right) exchanged flashing the U at the 2003 NCAA Championships, one of the stages that helped bring visibility to the new tradition.
Bill noted that they wouldn’t be able to make it to all of Utah’s meets, so Bircumshaw came up with something to fill in the gap. He didn’t feel comfortable pointing to his eyes and heart like her parents would do for Melissa. However, he created a great alternative. He came up with the idea of making the U shape with his hands and flashing it in front of him, letting Melissa know “I’m supporting you.” She reciprocated the flashing, U-shaped hand signal back to him.
“John said, ‘I will help and I’ll take over and she can look at me in the stands any time,’” Vituj recalled about the conversation between her father and Bircumshaw. “So that’s kind of how it started.”
Originally, it was just something between Bircumshaw and Vituj. However, as time progressed, her teammates started to take notice. Not knowing what was going on, they picked up on what Melissa and John were doing with their hands and assumed it had something to do with Utah. So they started doing it along with their teammate to the fans.
Former Utah senior associate athletics director Liz Abel, who handled communications for the gymnastics team, had a front-row seat for the evolution of the tradition.
“When I first started noticing that John and Melissa were exchanging this hand symbol, I thought, ‘What is that?’” said Abel. ”Then John explained to me that he and Melissa were using it to communicate with each other.”
Neither John or I expected it to catch on like wildfire like it has. It’s just so cool to see how something that started off just as a simple personal thing catch on. It’s pretty amazing how a symbol like that can just bring the whole community together in support of the U.Melissa Vituj
Over the next few years, “Flashing the U” started showing up more and more at Utah gymnastics meets. And over time, more and more fans caught on and starting doing it as well. Vituj explained that it really began to catch fire when she did it at the NCAA Championships in 2003.
“I flashed it up at the stands and the fans flashed it back to me,” said Vituj, who was recently inducted into the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame.
Flashing the U soon became a symbol for Utah gymnastics and it picked up additional steam when former football coach Urban Meyer learned about it in 2003.
“When Urban came here, we didn’t really have a high level of organized school spirit or much of a student section,” Abel said. “He was the one that really got that bus going with all of those things. He had the team start singing the fight song after games and made a huge push to get students to turn out."
Unlike “Hook’em Horns” at Texas, “Gig’em Aggies” at Texas A&M or other traditional hand signs that have been around for years at other schools, Utah didn’t have anything of the sorts. So when flashing the U started to spread organically from gymnasts to football, and the players began using it during games, Meyer embraced it quickly.
“He and the team started sharing the hand signal frequently with the MUSS,” Abel said. “That is when it really took off.”
Running back Matt Asiata flashed a U to the crowd after scoring a touchdown in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. The moment was viewed by a national television audience and Utah fans everywhere, and is credited with broadening the hand signal's appeal.
As the movement picked up more and more, it was brought to the forefront with a memorable moment from the 2009 Sugar Bowl when Matt Asiata flashed the U after scoring a touchdown in the win over Alabama.
“That’s when it like went crazy,” Vituj said of Asiata’s celebration.
Abel noted that it’s kind of funny how small things just take off and catch on.
“You can pass someone on the street or in the grocery store, and you can flash the U and everyone knows what you mean. It bonds people together,” she said.
The University began a “Flash the U Friday” social media campaign in August of 2013. By the end of that semester, the U’s social media manager Andrew Thompson Landerghini was receiving hundreds of photos from people around the globe flashing the U, hoping they would be featured.
The hand signal has become commonplace.
Bircumshaw appreciates how all of the Utah teams have helped the flashing the U tradition take off and prosper. Its innocent beginnings remains part of its beauty.
“Neither John or I expected it to catch on like wildfire like it has,” Vituj said “It’s just so cool to see how something that started off just as a simple personal thing catch on. It’s pretty amazing how a symbol like that can just bring the whole community together in support of the U.”
Melissa Vituj and John Bircumshaw have stayed in touch over the past 20 years. John was in attendance this fall when Melissa was inducted into the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame.
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