fatmanjim Wrote:I was in section 117 for the 2002 MAC championship game. When Gardner took his cheap shot on Byron I was too busy yelling at refs to throw the lil' wussy out of the game...never saw any snowballs thrown at Toledo fans, but then again I don't know what section those 12 folks were sitting in.
TJ,
I always enjoy your posts. You do such a good job of representing the character and intellegence of the anti-Marshall crowd on this forum. Keep up the good work! :withstupid:
Dodo,
I respect your opinion. If you say that opposing players and fans have been assaulted while in Huntington I'll take that for the truth. I'm embarrassed by the actions you listed and hope (and believe) they are an infrequent occurrence at Marshall. I personally have not seen anything of that magnitude at a Marshall game, I really haven't. The worst I've witnessed is a drunk running off at the mouth towards a visiting couple, which was met by disdain from other Herd fans and eventually led to a departure from the stadium of the obnoxious fan.
I've never denied there haven't been isolated incidents that have occurred in Huntington, as they do in nearly all football stadiums. I haven't witnessed it in Huntington to the degree many Marshall haters on here would want everyone to believe. There simply isn't a motive to support those allegations and there hasn't been INDEPENDENT reports from credible media sources that substantiate those claims. After all if this abuse was as serious as some on here make it out to be, it should be a headline news story. It all gets back to Herd haters doing everything in their power to divert attention from what happens between the white lines. It isn't much different that what you see in other conferences....Tennessee isn't well liked by SEC foes, Spurrier wasn't well liked by SEC opponents while he was in Gainsville, everyone in the BigXII can't stand Oklahoma or Bob Stoops, Florida State has been the ACC fans whipping post for several years, and so on. The natural tendancy of sports, if you can't beat 'em on the field, expend all effort to denegrate the elite team in the conference at any opportunity off the field. It's the old philosophy of trying to tear others down instead of building yourself up. Kind of a sad life to live if you ask me.
The incident with the Miami redshirt player being assaulted was reported in the
Dispatch. That was no rumor. And, like I said, if not for the help of some Marshall football players, things would have been a lot worse. Those Marshall kids could have just walked away, but they didn't. I'd actually like to know who the Marshall players were. I would have liked to have seen them get some public recognition.
Anyway, I'm no stranger to hostile crowds. I go to Athens for the Georgia v. GT game just about every other year. That's a horribly hostile rivalry, and the last time I was in Athens (I didn't make it last year, thank gawd), my brother and I started counting the number of times we were given the finger. Before we left Athens, we counted 21 times. Plus, we got plenty of harassment. However, I've never felt physical danger there -- even walking across the campus past the frat houses and the like after a Tech win. Clemson can be rough -- I've seen a few fights up there. Some of you Marshall guys may have gone down for your game with them a few years ago ('99?).
Actually, the only time I've ever had a sort of physical confrontation, it was with a fellow Tech fan in Atlanta. In that case, I really was ready to throw the @sswipe off the stadium.
I think it's fair to say, though, that unless you count Veteran's Stadium, you're fairly safe in any football venue. And, FWIW, I'm not really afraid to go to Huntington -- I could handle myself just fine. I just don't want to have to risk having my car damaged because I have a Miami sticker in the window.
I highly recommend traveling to Bowling Green, however. The campus is as ugly as the women are easy.