Postgame woes at other schools

9/22/2003

Fans rush the field at the Glas Bowl after Toledo's win over the University of Pittsburgh.

Serious injuries have, unfortunately, spoiled a number of post-game postgame celebrations. In many cases, campus officials decided to beef up security and try to prevent students from scrambling onto the field and tearing down goal posts.

Some schools have resorted to stationing police on horses and authorizing the use of chemical spray to keep exuberant fans off the field and away from the goal posts.

The incidents have happened at schools large and small and across the country. It has even happened at a high school game. Among the notable cases:

A woman was critically injured after a Yale-Harvard game at the Yale Bowl in New Haven in 1983 when a steel goal post came down on her head during on-field celebrations.

In 1993, more than 70 people were injured after University of Wisconsin fans stormed the field after a victory, leaving one woman in a coma with severe brain injuries. She recovered.

In 1996, fans celebrating a South Carolina high school's championship pulled down the goal posts, striking a young man in the head and breaking his ankle.

In 1998, an Oregon State student was injured when a goal post struck her in the head as it was torn down after the Beavers beat Oregon 44-41 in double overtime.

A Georgia student was hospitalized when after she was trampled as fans tore down a goal post in an on-field celebration after Georgia beat Tennessee in Athens in 2000.