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It’s the mantra that has helped define one of professional sports most successful franchises.

The “Go Spurs Go” catchphrase has been used by the San Antonio Spurs for nearly three decades, becoming a part of fans’ local lexicon.

Every icon has a beginning.

This week’s San Antonio Explained looks at the creation and lasting impact of the citywide catchphrase and the creative team behind it.

The San Antonio Spurs, looking for a new way to advertise the team during the 1999 playoffs, turned to local adman Al Aguilar and his fledgling agency Creative Civilization to develop a catchy slogan for use in a promotional campaign.

“We need something to sell tickets for the playoffs, something that’s really going to grab people’s attention,” Aguilar recalled Spurs officials telling him.

Aguilar, who had already done some work for the Spurs, produced a few ideas for a new slogan, including “Ready To Go,” which some Spurs brass preferred. Aguilar favored “Go Spurs Go” as the catchphrase that would work best to capture fans’ excitement. 

The simplicity of “Go Spurs Go” met the six “gotta haves” of advertising that Aguilar built his career around.

“It absolutely has got to deliver on these following things: It’s got to be simple, meaningful, memorable, marketable, ownable and sustainable,” he said. The “Go Spurs Go” tagline also carried the team name, which Aguilar thought was important.

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The simplicity of Aguilar’s creation left Spurs executives underwhelmed, he said.

“When we presented that idea, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, wow! That’s it! That’s the winner! ‘ It was more like, ‘Really? That all there is to it? ‘ And, I mean, that’s OK. It didn’t bother me,” Aguilar said, citing inspiration from one of advertising’s most iconic taglines.

“We actually met the gentleman who created ‘Just Do It’ and he told us it was the same story for him,” Aguilar said of the Nike tagline coined by adman Dan Weidman in 1988 that was met with skepticism when he pitched it.

Believing the “Go Spurs Go” slogan would work, Aguilar and his wife Gisela Girard, who co-founded Creative Civilization, got the go-ahead from the Spurs to create a spot featuring local residents saying the catchphrase.

“We made some placards that said ‘Go Spurs Go’ on one side, and we went to people we knew and asked them, ‘Can we just have you stand there with the placard and say, ‘Go Spurs Go’,” Girard said, recalling she had to coach people how to say it.

“I told them, ‘Say it like you’re really enthused, excited, like you’re cheering,” she said. People also had to be coached to say it over and over, like a chant.

Among those featured in the test spot were Father David Garcia, then-rector at San Fernando Cathedral, and a UPS delivery man whose route included Alamo Plaza, where Creative Civilization’s offices were at the time. Everyday fans also were included, with recognizable locales, including the River Walk, serving as backdrops. 

Music was added to the edited compilation, along with some animation for visual effects, and the spot was ready to be presented to Spurs executives.

“Let’s just say they were pleasantly surprised,” Aguilar said. “They were just like, ‘Oh my gosh! We need to put that on T-shirts. We need to put that on banners,’ and what happened was you started seeing it everywhere.”

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It didn’t take long for Spurs fans — and the city — to embrace the catchphrase. 

The three-word tagline soon started popping up on T-shirts, placards, car flags, banners and homemade signs adorning front yards. It was emblazoned across all kinds of merchandise sold by street-side vendors and scrolled in shoe polish on car windows.

“People were literally getting these little Styrofoam cups and using them to spell out ‘Go Spurs Go’ in their fences,” Aguilar said. “It was everywhere. It was just incredible to see.”

The Spurs’ postseason success — ultimately winning the franchise’s first NBA title — helped fuel the catchphrase, he said.

“Talk about being at the right place at the right time,” Aguilar said. “This campaign was launched when everything came together.”

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Creative Civilization went on to produce several more promotions for the Spurs, including the “One Team. One Goal” tagline created for the 2005 NBA championship run and the “Team Is Everything” slogan used during the 2007-08 season.

Though catchy, none filled the city’s landscape like the now-iconic “Go Spurs Go.”

It is still used in Spurs marketing material and officially licensed merchandise, including this year’s NBA playoffs T-shirt. And fans continue to use it in much the same way they did in 1999.

With the advent of social media, the hashtag #gospursgo was created, and Spurs fans started using the abbreviated “GSG” as a sign-off. The full catchphrase continues to be used among fans, especially now with the Spurs back in the playoffs, both online and in person. 

“spurs in the playoffs means everyone in san antonio says ‘go spurs go’ the same way they say ‘merry christmas’ in december lol. at the bank and HEB and the park ‘go spurs go’-ing each passerby. it’s beautiful,” a Spurs fan wrote on X.

“It’s the city pledge of allegiance,” another fan responded.

The catchphrase’s staying power of nearly three decades is a point of pride for the team that created it.

“It gives us a great sense of pride because we’re born and raised here and to have the opportunity to work with a brand like the Spurs, a global brand, and to be able to have the opportunity to come up with this slogan in 1999, that 27 years later still is even more effective and more powerful, it just, it really makes us emotional,” Girard said.

Aguilar also feels proud that his “little agency,” which was founded months before the “Go Spurs Go” creation, was given the opportunity to promote what would become a pivotal time in the franchise’s history.

“We were a startup. And, they said, we’re going to give you all an opportunity, and most importantly, they hired a San Antonio-based firm,” Aguilar said. “So here’s this underdog advertising agency, and I feel we won the championship coming up with this.”