Plenty of Bengals fans still remember the "Ickey Shuffle,” the end zone dance invented by former Cincinnati running back Ickey Woods in 1988. But how does it compare with other celebrations like the "Griddy?”
Woods holds his signature shuffle up to the best of them. In 1988, when his mom was in town along with his two oldest kids, Woods remembers he told them what he was going to do if he scored a touchdown.
It was the beginning stages of the Ickey Shuffle. Woods said fellow rookie and first-round pick Rickey Dixon found it kind of lame. So Ickey went back to the drawing board.
“I said, 'Rick, Rick, this is what I’m going to do if I score today. I’m going to go one, two, three to the right and one, two, three to the left and one, two, three back to the right and I’m going to hop back three times — three times and spike the ball.' He said, 'Oh yeah Ick, man, that’s going to be live!'"
Ickey still does the dance “every now and again.” Earlier this week he was teaching LPGA golfers how to do it. On Sunday before the Bengals game at the Cincinnati Hard Rock Café, he may show off his steps. Woods is practicing the Griddy. That’s the dance you may have seen Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson doing.
Dance competition aside, Woods spends much of his time raising money for his son’s asthma foundation for education and research. He’s passionate about finding a cure, he says, and if not a cure, new treatments. Jovante Woods died in 2010. He was a football standout for Princeton High School.
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