What happens when 19 college cheerleaders pile into an elevator, and it suddenly stops between floors? Here is a harrowing tale of technology gone horribly wrong, and of ultimate cheerleader triumph against all odds.
The first thing you should know is that the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City has a men's basketball team. And that team has cheerleaders (pictured). And one thing you should know about cheerleaders: When they see an empty elevator, it's very difficult for them to resist the urge to all pile in (see exhibit A in link below).
This happened at F.I.T. on Sunday, as 19 cheerleaders — including two guys — crammed into an elevator on the eighth-floor lounge, intending to head to the gym on the main floor. But then, disaster struck. A first-hand account from The Love of Sports:
"We get in, the elevator starts to move down slowly and then began to shake. Then it dropped abruptly two to three times. The elevator slowed and then stopped altogether. So, of course, it started in panic, and you can imagine how loud it got with 19 cheerleaders screaming all at once … Once we all decided we were stuck we called F.I.T. security through the elevator phone thing and they said they'd get to us ASAP."
"Then it started to get REALLY hot … And I know, laugh it up, every guy's dream come true. Where else would you rather be than stuck in a hot elevator with a bunch of cheerleaders? But I'm sure any straight male that had been in that situation with us would've realized pretty fast it wasn't anything even remotely sexy. So, here we are taking pictures of each other while F.I.T. security is tinkering with the door to try and get us out. We couldn't be sure what floor we were on, or if we were stuck between floors … 30 minutes later, we hear someone saying, "fire department," and, of course, we were thrilled!"
"Some of the girls took video as they opened the doors just to try and capture the look on the firefighter's faces when they saw 19 cheerleaders stuck in between floors one and two. The firefighters were great and got us out as quick as they could, but, of course, cracked a few jokes on us on the way out … It was pretty easy to get out, being cheerleaders, we just lifted people up and out, it was probably the quickest elevator evacuation the firefighters ever had."
This of course has happened before. So why is there no officially sanctioned national elevator cramming competition?
F.I.T. Cheer Squad Gets Big Scare [The Love Of Sports]