“Last nights victory over Virginia Tech was a great victory for our team, our coaches, our fans and this University,”West Virginia University President David C. Hardesty Jr. said today (Oct. 23) following WVU s 28-7 win over the nationally ranked Hokies.”Its just too bad that a small minority of our fans chose to celebrate irresponsibly.”
For weeks, WVU and city officials have been hammering the message home through press releases, public service announcements, letters in local newspapers, recorded messages on the video scoreboard and via voice mail that destructive and dangerous behaviorincluding tearing down goal posts, setting fires or throwing objectswould not be tolerated.
“Our message has been clear: Good sportsmanship was expected of our fans. Anything less was not going to be tolerated,”said Vice President for Student Affairs Ken Gray.”But, as we all know, in the end its up to the fans to act responsibly and with class.”
Most of the 56,000-plus fans attending the game were simply spirited and had fun, Hardesty noted.
“For the most part, I am proud of the way our fans supported the team and the University,”Hardesty said.
University officials noted that many of the students and fans that rushed the field following the victory simply celebrated with the players and others. They did what the public service announcer requested and soon exited the field. Those that remained, unfortunately, did not heed these repeated warningsor the strong police presenceand attempted to remove the goal posts. That was frustrating and disappointing, Gray said, and resulted in some fans being pepper sprayed”as a last resortfor their own safety.”
Gray cited two incidents which back up the Universitys philosophythe injury to a former Ball State University student who was paralyzed when a football goal post fell on him following an upset victory over Toledo in 2001, and last months incident at the University of Toledo where two students were seriously injured after fans rushed the field and tore down both goal posts after a victory over the University of Pittsburgh.
“These two incidentsand others just like them all across the countrycontributed to our philosophy of protecting our fans by not allowing them to participate in destructive behavior,”Gray said.”We simply did not want serious injuries to our fans occurring here, and I believe sound police policy was demonstrated last night.”
He added,”No one wants to willingly use pepper spray. But the bottom line is that safety has to come first. We clearly outlined our safety concerns with taking the goal posts down in multiple messages to our student body and fans. And, we clearly outlined the consequences.”
Luckily, Gray noted, there are no reports of serious injuries or extensive property damage, although local police and fire officials are reporting approximately two dozen arrests ranging from battery to disorderly conduct and some 60 citations from small trash fires to a large street fire.
Gray said students found in violation of local ordinances and state and federal statutesboth on and off campuswill be disciplined.
“I want to commend local police and fire officials along with our own University staff for both the preventative measures taken before the game and efforts to contain situations as they occurred,”Hardesty said.
Gray noted that similar post-game events on other campuses are”unfortunately a national trend.”
“We have attended conferences on trying to change this culture and will be attending another one in November. It is a dialogue we will continue to have on this campus and in this community, but it will likely be a slow, steady, deliberate process to change this mind set.”