All one has to do is watch footage from a major sporting event in the 1970s or 1980s. Your team wins and all of the fans charge the field, ripping away caps from players, tearing down goalposts, ripping up pieces of the basketball court, and basically going crazy.
Today the fans stay in the stands and cheer, sing songs, or whatever, but they are not near the players.
When did this stop? Was it done gradually or all at once? Does it still happen today when the police aren’t sufficiently out in force or have people just become used to not acting crazy?
Charging the field for “big” wins never stopped - watch last year’s Iron Bowl for an example.
As for tearing down (or even standing on) goalposts, it died down when more and more schools bought goal posts where the crossbar could be moved to the ground at the end of a game. (Schools without them simply have police officers standing next to them.)
It still happens all the time, with a few caveats.
Goal posts now are hinged near the ground, and the grounds crew lowers them to the ground as soon as the game ends, preventing injuries if the students tried to tear them down.
The police don’t really try to keep the students from rushing the field as the results can be much worse if the pressure builds up near the fences in front. (See Wisconsin vs. Michigan 1993).
Apparently they make field goal posts out of stronger stuff nowadays. The last time the Wisconsin had the fans/students rush the field after a win was the 2010 game against No. 1 Ohio State (it went off without a hitch, unlike 1993). Pictures of the post-game show fans climbed up on the still upright crossbars (Camp Randall apparently didn’t have the collapsable goal posts installed) but as far as I know, the posts survived the encounter.
Fans charging the field used to be the standard World Series celebration. Anyone remember the last time that happened?
I was at the final game of the 1982 series and fans poured onto the field, including a guy on crutches who went over the right field wall with his leg in a cast. Video of the end of the 1983 series does not show any fans on the firld.
In 1973, Cincinnati played the final game of the season against the Mets in Shea Stadium, and there was talk that Mets fans intended to rush the field and killl Pete Rose at the end of the game. (Retaliation for a play earlier in the season when Bud Harrelson was injured by Rose sliding into second base.) Rose successfully got into the dugout and down the tunnels before any fans could get to him.
That same day, Hank Aaron failed to hit a home run that would match the famous career record of Babe Ruth, and received thousands of death threats during the off-season. The famous video of Aaron, when he did set the record the following year, shows several Atlanta fans already on the field congratulating Aaron as he rounded second base.
I remember when the Phillies won it all in 1980, they had police dogs out to keep fans from rushing the field. I think that was the beginning of keeping fans off the field. It’s strange because fans back then were not happy being kept off the field but fans nowdays would look at fans rushing the filed as barbarians. It’s odd how that mentality just changed over a 15-20 year period. Kinda makes ya wonder if the media can brainwash people.
What I said above about Rose is based on memory, and I cannot verify it. In 1973, Rose did not play the final game of the season at Shea Stadium. The reason I looked it up was because I thought it was in the early 1980s, but I cannot find a game log that matches what I recall seeing. In 1982, Rose, then with the Phillies, played the last game of the season at Shea, so it is possible that it was then, and sentiments against Rose were still running high…
Can’t speak as to the veracity of plans to kill Rose, but you’re talking about the NL playoffs in '73. Rose slid into Harrelson very hard in one of the games. The fans took exception and started throwing things onto the field in LF when Rose came out for the next inning. It took a delegation of Mets to calm the crowd down, and a lengthy delay as well. I remember thinking at the time that the Mets were lucky they didn’t have to forfeit. Don’t know if officials would be so patient today.
I remember seeing “The Charge of the Cops Brigade” (NYPD officers on horseback rode out onto the field) when the Mets won in 1986. I assume they still remember what happened at Shea in 1969.
IIRC, when they reenacted the event 20(?) years later, they invited the two guys who were most prominent in rounding the bases with Aaron to repeat it as well.
It was only 2 guys who were doing the equivalent of a prank. They were very lucky they weren’t tackled, because Aaron later said they scared him initially. Nobody else from the stands went on the field, and the 2 guys were arrested and put in jail.
