67: Boonville Middle School Students Go Viral on ESPN

Sixth graders at Boonville Middle School recently took a field trip to a University of Evansville basketball game and created a viral moment.

On November 7th, the University of Evansville's Men's Basketball team hosted Education Day at the Ford Center. It was a game that happened in the middle of the day with kids from all over the area taking a field trip to the Ford Center to watch the game, along with some other educational programming. On that day, sixth graders at Boonville Middle School loaded up school buses to travel to the game. What started out as an ordinary field trip for them ended in a moment that went viral —not just locally, but nationwide!

Boonville Middle School Students Go Viral on ESPN

During the University of Evansville Men's Basketball game on Friday, November 7th, the Aces took on Calumet College of St. Joseph. In the second half of the game, the Evansville Aces were leading the Crimson Wave by a score of 64 to 33. With a little over ten minutes to go in the half, Aces senior, Trent Hundley, nailed a three-pointer. That shot gave Evansville a score of 67. With a bunch of kids in the audience, you knew what was bound to happen when those two numbers came up. At that moment, freshman Bryce Quinet celebrated with Hundley with a simple hand gesture that all of the kids in the audience were already doing. That gesture was a part of every parent's favorite phrase right now...67.

As you can see in the video above, the kids in the audience were having a blast doing the "67 gesture." What's cool about this clip that has gone viral shows the sixth graders from my hometown of Boonville going wild! Practically, my whole Facebook feed after this was posted was parents pointing out their kid in the crowd. Even Boonville Middle School shared the excitement on their social media page. I'm sure this turned out to be one of the best field trips those kids have ever taken because it's not every day you can claim that you went viral.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the University of Evansville Men's Basketball team defeated Calumet College of St. Joseph by a final score of 95-50. So that was the only time during that game that the crowd got to chant "67".

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What Does 67 Even Mean?

From what I gather from my kids is that 67 doesn't really mean anything. Dictionary.com reveals the origin of the term:

The origin of this most modern use of 67 is thought to be a song called “Doot Doot (6 7)” by Skrilla. (This is an opportune moment to mention that you may also see it written as 6 7, 6-7, or six-seven, but the most important thing is to never pronounce it as “sixty-seven.”) It was quickly reinforced by viral TikToks featuring basketball players and a young boy who will forevermore be known as the “67 Kid.” Within weeks, teachers were trading tips online about how to get their students to stop saying 67 all day long.

However, in terms of how the kids use 67, it really has no concrete meaning. It makes absolutely no sense why the kids use it in any context. I believe it's just a way for the kids to annoy their parents. Let's just hope that 67 is one of those trends that fades away quickly, or they can at least get a clear-cut meaning for it so that we old folks can start using it to make the kids think it's not cool to say anymore.