Within moments of the chaos rapidly unfolding at Scott Stadium last Friday night, Mike Bunting was experiencing his own kind of pleasant disruption some 1,400 miles away near his home in Austin, Texas.
His “Hoo Crew” group chat, a collection of mainly 2010-era University of Virginia graduates, was blowing up with excitement stemming from the UVA football team’s dramatic upset of eighth-ranked Florida State University.
Amid the texted shouts of “Wahoowa!” and “Go Hoos!” came an image of Bunting that made him internet-famous on Sept. 12, 2015, near the end of UVA’s heartbreaking loss to the University of Notre Dame. But instead of showing Bunting slumped over the front row of section 105 of Scott Stadium – the ESPN screenshot that spawned the “Sad Virginia Fan” meme – Stephanie Soh had Bunting upside-down to make it appear his hands were raised in celebration.
Bunting’s “Hoo Crew” group chat reacts to UVA’s win over Florida State in real-time. (Contributed photo)
“Not Sad Virginia Fan,” Kyle Dalton quipped in response.
Bunting has a long list of reasons to smile. The 2016 School of Engineering and Applied Science graduate has a good job, is married to his college sweetheart and enjoys being a father to their three small children.
Oh, and now Bunting’s alma mater has a football team ranked in the Top 25.
“The narrative has shifted,” Bunting told UVA Today. “I’d love to be relabeled ‘Happy Virginia Fan’ going forward.”
The thing is, Bunting is rarely sad. His visceral reaction 10 years ago to a last-minute Notre Dame touchdown that all but squashed UVA’s upset bid of the then-ninth-ranked Fighting Irish was simply the result of an unwavering passion for his school and an extension of his goofiness.
That part of his story, though, was mostly lost as references to his bowed head and slouched shoulders spread like wildfire across social media and into pop culture, where it inspired a Jimmy Fallon bit on “The Tonight Show.”
Mike Bunting: I didn’t know it was an image circulating virally until I got back to John Street, where I lived at the time.
My neighbor across the road walked over to me and said, “Mike, I think you might be famous.” I said, “What do you mean?” And she said, “You’re all over Yik Yak.”
It was the 15 minutes of fame thing. Jimmy Fallon impersonated me. ESPN’s cameras just caught a very visceral, momentary reaction. I’m normally a very happy person, but I was putting my all into that moment.
Obviously, 10 years ago, I was hoping for the outcome with Notre Dame. Now we’ve got the outcome with Florida State. I guess my message would be: Keep turning on the games every weekend, keep watching, see how things progress. Be a lifelong fan.
If you stick through all the lows, it’ll make the win feel that much better.
The meme even followed Bunting to Texas, where, after graduation, he began his new job at National Instruments and found the familiar image, placed by a Virginia Tech alum, on a wall in the office next to a faulty piece of equipment.
And that was just one of a few random acknowledgments.
“We moved down here, and our pastor at the church we started attending was a huge college sports fan,” said Breanna Bunting, Mike’s wife and a 2017 UVA School of Nursing grad. “He heard that Mike was the ‘Sad Virginia Fan,’ and went crazy, and just loved the fact that he had met this meme.
“It’s just incredible how widespread it was.”
