Ohio Stadium: 2 goalposts. Fans: 0.
For about 30 minutes following Ohio State’s 14-9 victory over archrival Michigan on Saturday, a small group of fans attempted to tear down the south goalpost at the Horseshoe. Police officers removed the group with the help of toxin-gas irritants.
Despite all the rocking the fans did trying to uproot the goalpost, no damage was caused to the posts, or any other physical part of the stadium, said Donnie Patko, assistant athletics director.
“We suffered very little,” Patko said. “The post wasn’t even knocked out of plumb. From our standpoint, the reaction from the game was good.”
Unlike other universities like North Carolina State that erected collapsible goalposts in anticipation of fans rushing the field, OSU used goalposts designed by Merchants Environmental Industries that are built to withstand the fans’ attack.
“We got into (the goalpost business) a little over 10 years ago,” said Bob Allen, vice president of MEI to Green Media Online. “We were asked to get involved when Northwestern University was losing almost a goalpost per week. They had lost a lot of games, and the students had no reason to be happy, so they made themselves happy by tearing the goalposts down,” he said.
“The university asked us to design something that would be resistant to these weekly tear-downs,” Allen said.
About 25 universities use MEI goalposts. They are designed with a machined-steel core surrounded by a steel pipe. Each weighs roughly a ton and a half and is placed six feet into the ground. The posts are removable for maintenance.
Allen said no single group of fans would be able to bring down the MEI-designed posts without help.
The only damage caused to the stadium by the fans was to the turf itself where fans tore up chunks of grass to keep as a memento.
“There is still a lot of grass,” Patko said. “If we had to play on it next week, we could.”
Patko said a committee will meet either this week or next to evaluate the condition of the field and decide on a course of action to restore the sod.
Chris McMaken, a senior in human ecology, rushed the field following the victory and took some turf as a memento from the game.
“We won against Michigan in the last possible second,” he said. “I took some turf, because I wanted to have something to keep from the game.”
McMaken said even though he rushed the field, he did not want to see the goalposts come down, because somebody would have gotten hurt.
“There were old people on the field, and old people always find a way to get hurt,” he said.
