I have written a great deal about the inherent dangers of fans rushing the court or field after a victory by the home team. While there is no greater rush as a fan, the practice is incredibly dangerous. As a post noted in March 2004, a number of students, members of the media and opposing players have been injured by the wave of students pouring out of the stands (3/10/04). And now, a student has been killed.
- Head trauma from a falling goalpost caused the death of a student at the University of Minnesota, Morris over the weekend, according to an autopsy report released Monday.
Rick Rose, 20, a junior from Benton City, Wash., died at a hospital after he and other students rushed onto the Morris football field to tear down a goalpost after the school's team defeated Crown College on Saturday. No one else was injured.
It was homecoming and the final game at Cougar Field, which is being replaced after 35 years. Morris Chancellor Sam Schuman said it appeared that "a small group of overly enthusiastic students" acted without thinking carefully.
Administrators at schools around the country should have looked at this problem before now, but they certainly need to act in the wake of this preventable accident. Measures can and should be taken to keep fans off the field; after all, fans are not allowed to rush the field or court after professional games. Fans going onto the field should be arrested; students should face university disciplinary action. It would only take a few prosecutions for the word to spread that fans belong in the stands. Fans in Chicago did not rush onto the field after their team's come-from-behind wins in the playoffs and World Series.
I would also expect university general counsels to advocate control measures until they are blue in the face. Although the law in this area is predictably thin, in our litigious times it is an almost certainty that litigation will result from injuries such as this one. (See 3/8/04 & 12/01/04). As courts continue to increase the duty of care a stadium owes to its patrons, especially for risks not inherent in the sport, Morgan v. Fuji Country USA, 40 Cal.Rptr.2d 249 (1995), a school not taking proper measures could face a multi-million dollar verdict. The university will argue that the student assumed the risk of injury in running onto the field, but this may not be enough to prevent tort liability.
No matter the legal conclusion, everyone hopes that this student will be the last to be killed in an on-field incident. And the only way to ensure this is to keep fans off the field in the first place.
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