If you’ve been to the University of Connecticut Student Union on a Friday night from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. at any point this spring, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen Jacob Crumb. If you haven’t seen him, you’ve still probably heard him. Better known as “JCrumb,” originating from his Instagram username, a video of Crumb singing karaoke at UConn Late Night went viral around campus in February, garnering over 40,000 views.
A few weeks later, a video entitled “Things I learned at the UConn Breakdancing Club” broke 100,000 views, quickly cementing Crumb as a campus celebrity.
“One of the people that I’ve also transferred in with from my community college, we were at Putnam Dining Hall and he was like, ‘Yo, your video got like 20,000 views or something. You’re getting famous over here,”Crumb said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, God, no.’ I was not expecting that.”
However, before Crumb became a household name among UConn students, he began his college career over an hour away from Storrs.
“Transitioning from Greenwich High School to Connecticut State Community College Norwalk, one of the most definite things that I wanted to do is to be here at Storrs,” Crumb said. “Do or die, no matter what.”
Crumb said that the goal has always been to attend UConn.
“I was born in Stamford. I grew up along the UConn Stamford campus,” Crumb said. “I wanted to be a UConn student since like, day one of my life. Now that I’m here, having all these kind and amazing people beside me here through my college journey, I want to give back to them.”
In his first semester in Storrs, Crumb quickly assimilated into the campus community and became a focal point for many. Quickly becoming involved in organizations such as the Breakdancing Club and the Husky Ambassador Program, Crumb had his sights on Late Night before the spring semester even began.
“I actually did a little bit of research on it before I transferred over here,” Crumb said. “In December, I was checking out the Late Night [Instagram] page. I was like, ‘Oh, they got karaoke. This should be fun.’”
Crumb said his social media success came to him by accident, as he was simply looking for a way to get more people to come to Late Night and spread awareness for the weekly event.
“I showed up every Friday for karaoke,” Crumb said. “I’m like always over there. The idea of me posting karaoke stuff on social media was, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to post myself singing and then let’s see what happens from there.’”
That social media following has grown to over 1,000 followers in the past month on Instagram and is now just a few followers away from 1,500 at time of writing. In response, Crumb began to post trivia questions about himself so that his followers could get to know him better.
“The UConn community is awesome, I’m not going to lie to you about that,” Crumb said. “I didn’t expect to have a fan base until one night during Late Night, this guy brought a whole colored picture of me. That made me laugh because that was actually one of my thumbnails in one of my Instagram videos.”
Crumb has started holding autograph sessions in the Union Street Market area of the Student Union in recent weeks, printing photos and handing them out with messages to those he is signing for. While these sessions originally only occurred during Late Night, he expanded the operation as demand grew.
“Now that I’m here at UConn, I [can] be who I am,” Crumb said. “One thing that really sticks out to me the most is to give back. Having a fan base, you know, having connections to my community college. I want to give back to this UConn community.”
Crumb has also gained attention for his recognizable outfits, whether that be the Adidas track suit he wears to breakdancing events or his now trademark suit.
“I started wearing a suit,” Crumb said. “I was like, “Let’s see how this goes,’ and then people started recognizing me out of nowhere.”
The suit originated at a UConn women’s basketball game, Crumb said.
“The reason why I wear a suit to basketball games and hockey games is because I’m about to witness greatness, so I’m going to treat it like it’s a formal event,” Crumb said.
While Crumb’s natural confidence and charisma, along with his serious singing skills, have allowed him to get where he is now, he also gave credit to the students who host Late Night every week.
“I would have to thank the UConn Late Night crew,” Crumb said. “[…]Without their hard work, I don’t know where I would be in this situation today,” Crumb said.
At the end of Late Night a few weeks ago, Crumb saved 10 of his autographed photos for the Late Night staff, per their request.
Outside of his fellow students, Crumb also said that memories of his late father figure help him to be as ambitious as he is today.
“[In high school,] I was going through rough periods of time,” Crumb said. “COVID happened during my sophomore year. What really got me down is that, in May after the end of my junior year, my father figure passed away due to alcohol. That really got me down pretty badly. So, once I got off the graduation stage at my high school graduation, I pointed up to the sky and said, ‘I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my father figure.’”
Crumb said that experience also helped inspire his high school senior quote, something that he has surely lived up to during his time at UConn.
“The quote is, ‘It’s time for me to build another legacy,’” Crumb said.