Ole Miss fans carry the north goalpost out of the Vaught-Hemingway stadium after Ole Miss won against Alabama Saturday. University Police Department said that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated in future games. DM Photo | Cady Herring
The University Police Department experienced unruly behavior from fans last weekend as a result of Ole Miss’ historic win over Alabama and said it will not tolerate such behavior for future games.
UPD Police Chief Calvin Sellers was present in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium when thousands of fans began storming the field and removing the goal posts from the ground.
“My concern was that people were going to get hurt when that thing fell,” Sellers said. “At one point, a guy started climbing one of the uprights. If he got up there and fell, it would have been bad.”
He said last weekend’s field raiding and goal post removal will be the last of the season.
“I can’t grab every person that’s out there,” Sellers said. “I’m going to be well outnumbered, but you need to think about it. You could be the one that I do get.”
UPD Captain of Field Operations Michael Harmon said he doesn’t expect the upcoming homecoming game against the Tennessee Volunteers to be as hectic as last weekend; however, he does expect another high-volume crowd.
“Our fans are unique,” he said. “They’re passionate about us winning, now, but they’re also passionate about partying. So, it goes hand in hand.”
Three disorderly conduct, eight assaults and 35 alcohol-related incidents were reported to the department last Saturday, according to UPD’s online daily crime log.
Harmon said arrest numbers from last weekend rivaled the record 46 arrests that were made during the weekend of a 2006 game against Georgia.
“It’s alcohol-plentiful,” Harmon explained. “We deal with it the best we can. We have to deal with a lot of situations where people think they’re Arnold Schwarzenegger once they’ve gotten a little alcohol in them.”
For typical gameday weekends, UPD outsources around 55 to 60 temporary officers from other agencies. For this particular game, they hired 76, roughly 18 more than usual.
“We had a lot of people here,” Harmon said. “But if you count the number of people and the number of guns, we’re still highly outnumbered.”
The majority of the remaining home games on the Ole Miss football team’s schedule are against nationally-ranked teams. Sellers said his officers will be prepared to hold rowdy fans responsible for their actions.
“We’re not going to continue to allow some of the behavior that’s been going on,” he said. “We can’t. We have the safety of over 60, 000 folks to worry about. Because you’re up there throwing bottles and throwing stadium seats, you’re not going to get to stay and watch the game.
“I’m not saying you’re just going to be ejected. I don’t think they have TVs at the Lafayette County Jail for you to watch a football game, and that’s where you’re going to end up.”
