Pitch invasion

"Field rush" redirects here. For the plant, see Juncus tenuis.
Stoke City F.C. fans invade the pitch at the Britannia Stadium to celebrate promotion to the Premier League in 2008.

A pitch invasion, known as rushing the field or storming the field in the United States, occurs when an individual or crowd of people who are watching a sports game run onto the playing area to celebrate or protest about an incident. Pitch invasions may involve individual people or capacity crowds.

American football

Ecstatic Washington Huskies college football fans storm the field in celebration after defeating the heavily-favored No. 3 USC Trojans in an upset.
Houston Cougars football fans rushing the field after defeating rival Texas Tech in 2009
Oregon State football fans prepare to rush the field in a historic upset of #3 USC in 2006

This is especially common in college football and high school football when a team pulls off a major upset, defeats a major rival, ends a long losing streak or notches a history-making win. Many schools employ riot police to physically prevent fans from rushing the field, a controversy in and of itself. However, with the widespread advent of artificial turf such as FieldTurf, some schools are becoming more lax about students invading the pitch. In the last few years, goal posts are also taken down within moments of the end of the game as a cautionary measure to prevent fans from climbing atop them to cause damage to the standard holding them up, damage to television camera equipment on the posts, and spectator injury. In the National Football League, storming the field usually results in lifetime revocation of season tickets from the holder of them, even if given or sold to another person.

Southeastern Conference penalties

Section 10.5 of the Southeastern Conference By-Laws has a progressive fine policy in major sports: $5,000 for the first offence, $25,000 for the second offence, and $50,000 for third and subsequent offences within a three-year period of the last pitch invasion.

After three years without a pitch invasion, a school will have the pitch invasion rule reset to one, meaning that the next pitch invasion will be declared a second violation, and the school will be fined $25,000.

The Kentucky Wildcats have been hit with "the triple" for three football pitch invasions within eleven months:

Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Missouri have been fined $25,000 for second offence violations, but most SEC schools have been fined $5,000. Missouri's fine is notable in that their second violation occurred after only three years as a member of the SEC: both came when supporters flooded Faurot Field after the team clinched a trip to the SEC Championship Game, in 2013 and 2014. Note that in association football, Kentucky and South Carolina will have the rule in effect for women's games, but because the men's game is held under the auspices of Conference USA, there is no pitch invasion fine in that sport.

Other conference penalties

Other conferences have similar by-laws; in some conferences, the pitch invasion rule is reset to zero after five years without a pitch invasion, and the fine is doubled in the event that a player or official is injured as a result of the pitch invasion.

However, more recently, some conferences have begun cracking down on pitch invasions in all sports.

Tearing down the goal posts

There has long been a tradition in American football — primarily in college football — under which fans celebrating a major victory will tear down the goal posts on the field after the game.[5] No one knows for certain when or how the tradition started.[6] The Boston Public Library has in its collection a photograph of fans tearing down a goal post in 1940.[7]

Tearing down the goal posts can be dangerous, however, as people can be injured or killed by a falling goal post. Persons who sit or hang on the goal posts while they are being pulled down can be injured if they fall off or if they land hard on the ground when the goal posts collapse. These dangers can create legal implications for the schools, the localities, and the venues where the games occur.[8]

In Massachusetts, there is a state statute that specifically prohibits the unauthorized tearing down of goal posts on a football field. Chapter 266, Section 104A of the Massachusetts General Laws provides: "Whoever willfully and without right destroys, injures or removes a goal post on a football field shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars."[9] The Massachusetts state legislature enacted the statute in 1960 in response to a tragedy that occurred the previous year.[10] On November 26, 1959 (Thanksgiving Day that year), a 14 year old girl in Foxborough, Jane Puffer, was hit on the head by a falling goal post. She had been part of a crowd that was on the field after the conclusion of a high school football game while a group of fans was tearing down a goal post. The steel goal post suddenly toppled to the ground, and Puffer was hit as she was apparently trying to push another girl out of its way. She died of her injuries the next day.[11][12][13][14] The state legislature enacted the statute the following year, and the law has remained unchanged ever since.[15]

In spite of the law, on December 22, 1985, fans of the New England Patriots tore down a goal post in Sullivan Stadium (also in Foxborough) to celebrate the team's victory there in the regular season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals. Some fans carried the goal post outside of the stadium, where they caused it to come into contact with an overhead high-voltage power line. A man nearby, Jon Pallazola, was seriously injured. There was evidence that he was injured when he tried to protect himself from being hit by the falling goal post immediately after it became electrified. Pallazola subsequently sued a private security company that had been under contract to provide security at the stadium. He received a large jury verdict against the company, and then settled his claim against the company for $4.5 million. He also sued the Town of Foxborough but, in 1994, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that his claim against the town was barred by a state statute that gave municipalities immunity from claims that they failed to provide police protection or prevent crimes.[16]

On November 19, 1983, an 18 year old Harvard University student was critically injured when she was hit on the back of her head by a goal post that Harvard fans tore down to celebrate their team's victory over archrival Yale University at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.[17][18] The student, Margaret Cimino, subsequently filed a lawsuit in federal court against Yale, the City of New Haven, the City of West Haven, and a security company. She settled her claims against the City of West Haven and the security company. In 1986, a federal judge ruled that Cimino had sufficient evidence to take her claims against Yale and the City of New Haven to trial.[19] The parties then reached a settlement before the trial occurred.[20]

On November 21, 1998, a first-year student at Oregon State University was seriously injured when she was hit on the head by a falling goal post that fans tore down after the football team's 44-41 double overtime victory over the University of Oregon.[21] She suffered a fractured skull and bleeding in her brain, but she eventually recovered from her injuries.[22]

In November of 2000, fans of the University of Texas at El Paso tore down a goal post after a victory. One fan claimed that he was injured when fans pulled the goal posts down while he was hanging on them. He sued the university and the University System of Texas. A Texas intermediate appellate court ruled in 2005 that the lawsuit was barred by governmental immunity.[23]

In October 20, 2001, a 21 year old Ball State University student was rendered paraplegic when a goal post that fellow fans tore down to celebrate a victory landed on his back.[24] The university had encouraged the fans to tear down the goal post, flashing a message on the scoreboard which said, "The goal post looks lonely." The student, Andrew Bourne, settled his subsequent claim against the university for $300,000, the maximum amount that he could recover from the school under Indiana state law. He also filed a product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer of the goal post, contending that the goal post was "defective and unreasonably dangerous." In 2006, a federal appeals court ruled that the manufacturer was not liable because the danger posed by the goal post was "obvious."[25]

As stated above, there are now collapsible goal posts that stadium staff can take down within seconds after the conclusion of a game, in order to prevent fans from tearing them down.[26][27] There are also goal posts that are constructed in such a manner that they cannot be taken down by fans.[28]

Association football

Pitch invasions are not uncommon but not as frequent nowadays in top level football, but historically it was common for the supporters of the winning team in a major match, such as a Cup Final, to flood onto the pitch after the final whistle. For example, in Kenneth Wolstenholme's famous "Some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over – it is now!" comment on the BBC's television coverage of the 1966 World Cup Final, "they" were fans who had encroached onto the pitch before the end of extra time.

Pitch invasions are less common in the modern football era than in the 1970s and 1980s. Somewhat surprisingly, it was during that period that fans were barricaded in the stands by fences; after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, this form of crowd control was abandoned, yet pitch invasions became rarer. The partial demise of pitch invasions may partly be due to the fact that in 1991 pitch invasions were criminalised in the UK under the Football Offences Act.[29] However, they do still occur, especially in the lower divisions where there is less policing and security.

Famous pitch invasions include:

Australian rules football

After-game kick-to-kick tradition at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is a rare sight. This follows an AFL match between the Melbourne Demons and Port Adelaide Power; 16000 fans were let onto the turf.
This pitch invasion occurred in 2008 when Lance "Buddy" Franklin booted his 100th goal in the final round of the regular AFL season.

Pitch invasions, rarely hostile or violent, have long been a tradition of Australian rules football. At the end of an Australian rules match, it is traditional for supporters to run onto the field to celebrate the game and play games of kick-to-kick with their families. Supporters were once also able to do this during the half-time break. In recent years, this was subject to stricter controls, and then finally banned altogether, in the elite Australian Football League However it is legal at Simonds Stadium and other smaller grounds.

It is also a tradition for the crowd to engage in a mid-match pitch invasion when a player reaches a landmark achievement, typically a 100th goal in a season, a 1000th career goal, or (in the case of Tony Lockett's 1300th career goal in 1999), breaking the all-time goal-kicking record. The AFL has not yet succeeded in preventing these mid-match invasions, but players are duly protected by bodyguards and stadium security while supporters flood onto the field.

There have been a few occasions of hostile pitch invasions; the most infamous of these occurred in the 1967 Tasmanian State Premiership Final, when hundreds of Wynyard fans invaded the field and tore down the goalposts to prevent North Hobart full forward David Collins from kicking a goal after the final siren. The Tasmanian Football League declared the match a no result and withheld the 1967 State Premiership.

Another hostile pitch invasion occurred in an AFL night game between St Kilda and Essendon in 1996, when the floodlights at Waverley Park lost power and fans rioted in the darkness and, coincidentally, also took down the goalposts. (The game was later replayed three days later.)

Some unusual pitch invasions have become part of football folklore, such as the famous incident of the pig named "Plugger" being let loose on the ground in round 18, 1993.[38] Similar incidents of animals invading the pitch have also occurred in recent years, including a feral cat which was arrested at AAMI Stadium, as well as occasional dogs. The outlawed practice of "streaking" (running naked onto the ground) occurred in some big matches, most famously the performance of Helen d'Amico in the 1982 VFL Grand Final.

Baseball

Pitch Invasion at Blue Jays baseball game

In modern baseball, a pitch invasion is typically undertaken by one or a small number of attention seeking fans or pranksters, rather than a large number of people. Almost universally, the perpetrator(s) will be ejected and banned for life from the ballpark, and may also face criminal charges depending on the nature of the offence.

In cases when a game is broadcast on television and a person or small group runs onto the field, the broadcaster will cut to another camera shot elsewhere in the stadium, to the announcers in the press box, or to a commercial break instead of focusing on the person(s); this is to avoid giving attention to their behaviour, and to discourage imitators who might try the same thing.

Famous incidents

Morganna, the Kissing Bandit

Morganna, the Kissing Bandit became famous for rushing the field in baseball and other sports from the early 1970s through the 1980s. She rushed the field on numerous occasions and kissed many Major League Baseball players including Nolan Ryan, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, George Brett (twice), Steve Garvey, and Cal Ripken, Jr.[41]

Basketball

College basketball has a similar phenomenon, known as "storming the court". This normally happens for the same reasons as storming the field in college football.

In high school and some colleges, walking on the court is the only way to exit from the stands. However, there are usually officials that limit how far spectators can walk onto the court, at least while players and game officials are still leaving the court.

Cricket

It used to be a common occurrence at the end of cricket Test matches for the crowd to invade the pitch to watch the presentation from the pavilion balcony. In the UK, this tradition ended in 2001 after a steward was injured in a pitch invasion at a one-day match between England and Pakistan.[44] Invading the pitch can now warrant a £1,000 fine and a lifetime ban from the ground. Post-match presentations are now held on the field.

In 1982, a pitch invasion at the WACA led to Australian bowler Terry Alderman suffering a shoulder injury when attempting to apprehend one of the intruders.[45]

Two One Day International matches at the Bourda ground in Georgetown, Guyana have had their results disrupted by pitch invasions. In 1993, the crowd invaded on the last ball of a match as the West Indies ran a second run to tie the score against Pakistan; then, in 1999, the crowd invaded on the last ball of a match as Australia ran a third run to tie the score against the West Indies. In both cases, the fielding team had been a chance of effecting a run-out to prevent the tying run, had the crowd not invaded; but in both cases, match referee Raman Subba Row declared the match to be tied.[46]

Gaelic football and hurling

In Gaelic football and hurling, both national sports of Ireland, pitch invasions were acceptable and most widely seen at Provincial and All-Ireland Finals. However there has only been one occurrence at Croke Park, after the 2010 Leinster Senior Football Championship Final, due to a crackdown since 2009 by the GAA, though they still occur in other stadia around the country.

International rules football

International rules football, a hybrid of Aussie Rules and Gaelic football is not known for pitch invasions, however a famous pitch invasion occurred in the first test of the 2006 International Rules Series at Pearse Stadium, Galway after Ireland defeated Australia.

The game included several impersonators and streakers, but at the end of the game, when Ireland had come from behind to win with goals in the dying seconds of the match, the crowd rushed the field, causing much controversy with the Australian players.

Rugby league

In New South Wales Rugby League matches up until the 1980s, spectators often took to the field on the completion of the match within seconds after the final siren. This required the players to navigate through a crowd of people when coming off the field, and the cardboard corner posts were usually taken as "souvenirs".

This practice was discouraged when the publicly viewable game clock stopped with five minutes to play in order to ensure that spectators, not knowing when the game was about to finish, could not jump the gun and enter the playing arena with the game unfinished. Eventually the tradition died out, and spectators rarely, if ever, take the field in the present day National Rugby League; fines of $7000 and lifetime bans exist for those who do so.

In 2007, a match between Hull KR and Hull FC at Craven Park also known as the 'Hull Derby', the match ended at a score off 30 – 20 in favor of Hull FC. After the final whistle Hull FC fans raided the pitch to congratulate their players; however, it got out of control after a female Hull FC fan attacked a Hull KR fan with an umbrella, and damage was caused to the ground.

The Rugby Football League fined both clubs; however, it heavily criticized Hull KR for the lack of stewards at the ground.

Rugby union

Pitch invasions have occurred throughout the history of rugby union, with some particular moments being the most infamous. In the past, additional security support has been constructed at stadiums due to foreseen trouble. An early example of this was at the 1924 Summer Olympics, when a wire fence was constructed to protect United States players.

Infamous pitch invasions

Arena sports

The concept is nearly impossible to emulate in ice hockey due to the sideboards and Plexiglas panels which keep the ice surface, team benches, and penalty boxes completely separate from the crowd, and the high probability of injury from attempting to storm the ice surface without skates (likewise with arena football or indoor soccer due to the same partitioning devices being used). A few attempts to do so have usually ended with physical player intervention.

References

  1. The Chicago All-Star Game, 1976
  2. Bates, Roger, "Thank God it's over!" Muscatine Journal, September 9, 1978.
  3. NFL.com: Bills stop skid vs. Dolphins
  4. Kentucky Fined $50,000 for Third Offence Sportsmanship Violation.
  5. Darren Rovell, The ultimate form of fan participation, ESPN.com (November 20, 2002). Retrieved on April 21, 2015.
  6. Suzanne Halliburton, Cox News Service, Despite injury risk, college students still relish tearing down goal posts, reprinted in the Baltimore Sun (December 9, 1990). Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  7. Nate Boroyan, "No Good": If Harvard Beats Yale, Don't Tear down the Goal Posts, BostInno (November 22, 2014). Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  8. David LaVetter & Yun Seok Choi, Implications of Toppling Goal Posts in College Football: Managing Institutional Risk, Journal of Sport Administration & Supervision, Volume 2, Issue 1, April 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  9. Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 266, Section 104A, from the website of the Massachusetts state legislature. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  10. North Adams Transcript, page 11 (August 11, 1960). Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  11. Associated Press, "Goal Post Kills Girl", reprinted in the Nashua Telegraph, page 1 (November 27, 1959), and "Girl, 14, Near Death After Blow from Falling Goal Post," on page 3 of the same edition of the newspaper. From Google News. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  12. Girl is Killed by Blow from Falling Goalpost, Lawrence Journal-World (November 30, 1959). From Google News. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  13. Jane Puffer's grave, from Findagrave. "Romiglio" was her mother's maiden name. Retrieved on April 21, 2015.
  14. Death Notice of Marie H. Puffer (Jane Puffer's mother), Foxboro Reporter (April 21, 2011). Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  15. Massachusetts Acts, 1960, Chapter 610, from the website of the State Library of Massachusetts. Retrieved on April 21, 2015.
  16. Pallazola v. Town of Foxborough, 418 Mass. 639, 640 N.E.2d 460 (1994). From Google Scholar. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  17. Susan Chira, Harvard Student, Hurt at Yale Game, Is Now Able to Talk, New York Times (November 24, 1983). Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  18. Sports of the Times; In the Snap of a Goal Post, Life Can Be Forever Altered, New York Times (November 26, 2002). Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  19. Cimino v. Yale University, 638 F. Supp. 952 (D. Conn. 1986). From Google Scholar. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  20. Sports People; Harvard Student Settles, New York Times (August 2, 1986). Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  21. Associated Press, Student Hit by Goal Post Improving (November 23, 1998). Retrieved on April 21, 2015.
  22. Mike Dodd, Oregon State student "blessed" to be healed, USA Today (December 5, 2002). Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  23. University of Texas at El Paso v. Moreno, 172 S.W.3d 281 (Tex. Ct. App. 2005). From Google Scholar. Retrieved on April 21, 2015.
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  25. Bourne v. Marty Gilman, Inc., 452 F.3d 632 (7th Cir. 2006). From Google Scholar. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  26. Andrew Pentis, 49ers Install NFL's First Collapsible Field Goal Posts (with video), from the website of the San Francisco 49ers (March 7, 2014). Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  27. LaVetter & Choi, supra.
  28. NCAA News, Institutions modify fan behavior with alternative goal posts, from the website of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (March 1, 2004). Retrieved April 22, 2015.
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  30. "Joint probe launched into trouble". BBC News. 11 September 2002. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
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  32. Brown, Oliver; Mole, Giles (26 August 2009). "Violence at West Ham v Millwall a 'disgrace' says Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  33. Sarajevo fans invaded the pitch (in Bosnian)
  34. Željezničar celebrated the return of the title (in Bosnian)
  35. "Knallkörper, Jubelchaos – und der Aufstieg" (in German). Kicker. 15 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-02.
  36. "Newcastle United Fans Slammed Over Wigan Pitch Invasion". The Journal. 23 March 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
  37. "Malmö fansen stormar planen efter sm-guldet säkrats på Borås arena" (in Swedish). YouTube. 28 October 2013. Retrieved 2013-10-31.
  38. The day a pitch-invading porker made Plugger feel pig sick
  39. Platt, Ben (25 April 2006). "Monday's act heroic after 30 years". Cubs at MLB.com.
  40. Boccella, Kathy (26 August 2008). "Player who saved flag from desecration honored". Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 9 October 2008. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
  41. Rushin, Steve (30 June 2003). "Where Are They Now? Morganna". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
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  43. Vitale, Dick (December 12, 2011). "Indiana basketball back on the map". ESPN. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  44. "Steward hurt in cricket chaos". BBC News. 17 June 2001.
  45. http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/341460.html
  46. "Aussie May calls for better security measures". Hurriyet Daily News. 23 April 1999. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  47. "Harinordoquy's father apologises". ESPN Scrum. 30 November 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-30.

External links