Erika Pobee-Mensah remembers first hearing about a spectator known to many non-revenue sports fans as “Flash” as a freshman at nearby Broughton High School. She soon began seeing the man, an NCSU alumnus whose real name is Jonathan Halperen, playing guitar at many of Broughton’s home football games and nearly 10 years later, considers him a staple of the community.
“I’ve seen him at the D.H. Hill Library a few times this year as I go there more often now,” Pobee-Mensah, now a senior in psychology at State, said. “He’s extremely polite and I’m convinced that he’s more a part of Raleigh than most of the people that I know here.”
Many fans of non-revenue sports such as soccer, volleyball, or women’s basketball have come to know him for his tendency to scream cheers such as “Hulk Smash!” and, “It’s Clobberin’ Time!”
“Well, for the Hulk cheers, I saw the movie,” Halperen said. “I grew up as a child with the Fantastic Four and that sort of thing. Some of my cheers are left over from junior high school.”
In addition to giving him access to technology he can’t otherwise utilize, Flash’s frequent trips to campus return him to the school where he studied and worked as a reporter for the Technician.
“Mostly I come to State to use the computers,” said Flash. “I am probably the only student that went to State for five years in my day and never went to a varsity event.”
Nearly three decades since his days as a student reporter, the former proofreader and columnist now makes it to every sporting event he can afford to attend.
“I still don’t go to the ones that cost too much, because, you know, I don’t have any money,” Halperen said. “Football and men’s basketball are too expensive. You’ve got to camp out to see them and it’s too crowded.”
Pobee-Mensah said she realized Halperen wasn’t the man his appearance indicated he might be when she met him at a martial arts event long after she had formed an opinion of him that he quickly proved false.
“Before, I always viewed him as some strange man who rode a bike around downtown Raleigh with a guitar,” Pobee-Mensah said. “It wasn’t until I watched him compete for his black belt that I realized that he is actually very active in this community.”
