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THE LIGHTER SIDE OF FAN-ATHLETE INTERACTION
Some fans find more creative, non-violent
ways to get involved in the action.
Tim Hurlbut: On a $200 bet, a 21-year-old student
named Tim Hurlbut hurdled over the glass at the Calgary Saddledome
wearing nothing but red socks. But his landing was less than perfect
He fell backward and knocked himself out on the ice. He left the arena
on a stretcher and never collected his winnings.
Mark Roberts: If you don't recognize Mark Roberts
by name, you've probably seen him before wearing nothing but a smile
in a number of sporting events. He's exposed his bits at Wimbledon,
the British Open, the Commonwealth Games and the Super Bowl. In England,
the self-proclaimed World's Most Prolific Streaker is a full-blown
celebrity. The Liverpool native can't walk into a pub without being
mobbed.
Morganna: The buxom blonde from Kentucky was baseball's
Kissing Bandit for almost three decades. Dressed in hot pants and
a tight top, Morganna jumped onto ball diamonds across the U.S. for
nearly three decades, planting smooches on unsuspecting, and sometimes
entirely willing, players.
Ron Bensimhon: Ron Bensimhon and his blue tutu made
a mockery of the 2004 Athens Games' big-budget security. The Montreal
native was able to scamper onto the pool deck at the diving venue,
climb up a diving board and plunge into an Olympic pool during a men's
springboard competition. Bensimhon had GoldenPalace.com scrawled on
his bared chest, but the online casino - known for pulling high-profile
publicity stunts denied any involvement.
Soccer slapper: Aston Villa goalkeeper Peter Enkleman
made what many pundits consider the biggest blunder in English soccer
history on Sept. 15, 2002 against Birmingham City. Defender Olof Mellberg's
routine throw-in back to Enkleman rolled under the goalkeeper's foot
and into the back of the net, earning the Finnish goalkeeper a place
in the Hall of Shame. A Birmingham fan then took the art of athlete
taunting to a new level when he ran onto the field and goaded Enkleman
before slapping him in the face.
CBC SPORTS ONLINE TOP 10Fans
vs athletes: 10 ugly incidents
CBC
Sports Online | Nov. 24, 2004
Last week's NBA horror show between some out-of-control
Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers and equally out-of-control fans rocked
North America's sports world. The topic is the darling of talk radio,
the clip is on every highlight reel on every sports and news broadcast.
And now pundits are talking about the sociological underpinnings of
the brawl.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, a little perspective: what happened
at Auburn Hills on Friday is just the latest in a long series of bizarre,
ugly, sometimes laughable interactions between fans and the athletes
they pay to see. Here's our pick of the 10 most notable:
What do you when someone is cursing and kicking
at you? Take his shoe and beat him with it. At least that's what Boston
Bruin Mike Milbury did when he ran into the stands to defend his teammates
in a brawl at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 23, 1979.
Milbury was sitting in an empty dressing room, savouring a 4-3 victory
over the New York Rangers, when he suddenly noticed he was the only
one in the room.
When he walked back to the ice surface he found the rest of his teammates
climbing into the stands, going after someone who grabbed a stick
and swung it at Bruin Stan Jonathan.
While absolute havoc played out in the stands, with captain Terry
O'Reilly leading the charge, Bruin Peter McNabb pinned down a kicking
fan and one of his shoes ended up in Milbury's hand. So Milbury hit
the fan with it. All of it was caught on video. O'Reilly was suspended
for eight games and Milbury two for the incident.
One of the darkest fan-athlete interactions
occurred on a Hamburg tennis court. Monica Seles, then the world's
No.1 player, was stabbed by a fan during a break in her match with
Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva.
Guenter Parche, a 39-year-old unemployed lathe operator, jabbed a
25-cm long knife into Seles' back as she rested mid-match on a courtside
seat. The stabbing was prompted by Parche's obsession to have Germany's
Steffi Graf regain the No. 1 world ranking.
Although Seles recovered from her injuries, Parche was successful
at derailing the tennis star's career. She was sidelined for more
than two years. Seles won her first comeback tournament – the
1995 Canadian Open – but was never able to achieve the same level
of dominance in the sport. What was Parche's penalty? A two-year suspended
sentence.
It was on Jan.
25, 1995 that French soccer star Eric Cantona earned the nickname
'the king of kung fu'.
Four minutes after halftime in a tense game at London's Selhurst Park,
the Manchester United forward was shown a red card for kicking Crystal
Palace's Richard Shaw. As Cantona made his way towards the locker
room, Palace fan Matthew Simmons ran to the front of the stand and
barraged the Frenchman with a slew of obscenities.
In a blind rage, Cantona did his best impersonation of kung fu legend
Bruce Lee, launching himself over an advertising board with a two-footed
leap into the crowd and nailing Simmons squarely in the chest.
In the aftermath, Cantona was slapped with a nine-month worldwide
ban from soccer and narrowly escaped serving time after a judge reduced
an initial jail sentence of two weeks for common assault to 120 hours
of community service.
Here's a little tip for those overzealous souvenir collectors out
there: baseball players don't like it when you steal their caps.
One fan in Chicago's Wrigley Field certainly found this out when,
walking past the bullpen area, he punched Los Angeles Dodger Chad
Kreuter in the back of the head and then stole the hat off the catcher's
head.
OK, maybe Kreuter was more upset about the punch then the stolen cap.
He jumped into the stands in pursuit of the fan and his teammates
followed.
It took security several minutes to restore order as fans and players
traded punches. Several people were taken away in handcuffs.
Sixteen players and three coaches were suspended a total of 76 games
for the incident, although seven of those suspensions were overturned
on appeal.
5. Domi, fan get up
close and personal – March 29, 2001
Tie Domi squirts a fan. (AP Photo)
A glass panel provides a nice sense of security
for the belligerent fan. But once that barrier is broken, all bets
are off. Just ask the guy who tumbled into the penalty box at a Philadelphia
Flyers game and ended up tangling with the object of his heckling
– Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi.
Domi was in the box serving an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty when
a fan began showering him with insults. Domi struck back, squirting
the heckler twice with water. The fan then charged the glass, broke
through the partition accidentally, and fell into the box. Domi and
the man grappled before two NHL officials broke up the fracas.
Domi summed up the incident this way: "When fans get try to get
involved in our work they gotta be ready to pay the price."
One player said it was like he was starring
in the movie Private Ryan – just substitute the bullets with
bottles.
An important game between Jacksonville and Cleveland turned into a
side story when Browns fans, upset over a reversed call, pelted players
and game officials with plastic bottles with just over a minute left
in the game.
Cleveland fans, always a faithful bunch, grew angry when officials
overturned a catch by Quincy Morgan that could have set up a go-ahead
touchdown with just over 1:08 left.
After several hectic minutes, referee Terry McAulay announced the
game over. Players, coaches and officials ran back to the locker room
under a barrage of thrown objects.
They were forced to return by commissioner Paul Tagliabue to finish
the rest of the game.
"It was a good time to have a helmet," said one Jaguar as
he raced off the field.
Kansas City coach Tom Gamboa didn't even know what was happening at
first. In his words, "it felt like a football team had hit me
from behind."
What the crowd and television audiences saw was a shirtless father
named William Ligue Jr. and his 15-year-old son jump out of their
seats and attack the 54-year-old first-base coach on the field of Comiskey Park
in Chicago.
The Kansas City players ran to their coach's aid and Gamboa escaped
the incident with only a few cuts and a bruised cheek.
Ligue Jr., who had a history of drug problems, apologized to Gamboa
and was given probation.
Cornelius Horan grabs
marathoner Vanderlei de Lima. (AP Photo)
The men's marathon. The final event of the
2004 Athens Summer Olympics was supposed to bring a glorious close
to the Games. Instead, the race took a bizarre and tragic turn when
a spectator grabbed the race leader, Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil,
with just five kilometres to go and pulled him into the crowd watching
the race.
The unruly "fan" – later identified as defrocked Irish
priest Cornelius Horan – was restrained by other spectators and
de Lima continued the race. Favouring his right leg and having lost
precious seconds, the Brazilian managed to win the bronze medal.
De Lima was also given the Pierre de Coubertin medal, awarded for
exceptional demonstration of fair play and Olympic values. Horan,
known for disrupting sporting events, was given a fine and a suspended
sentence.
9. Francisco tosses
one out of the park – Sept. 13, 2004
Frank Francisco. (AP Photo)
Texas Rangers relief pitcher Frank Francisco is used to throwing the
high heat. Late in the 2004 season he added a chair to his repertoire.
A group of Oakland A's fans began heckling Francisco and his Rangers
teammates as they sat along the right-field visitors' bullpen. Heated
words were exchanged before Francisco hurled a plastic chair into
the crowd. The projectile struck a woman in the face, breaking her
nose. The woman's husband was reportedly one of the hecklers.
Major League Baseball suspended Francisco for the rest of the season
(15 games). The pitcher also faces a misdemeanor assault charge.
One of the worst brawls in professional sports
took place near the end of the Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons game
on Nov. 19, 2004, in Detroit. Taunting fans and temperamental players
exchanged blows in the stands and on the court. Beer, ice, popcorn
and even a chair were thrown during the melee.
Four players were handed lengthy suspensions – Indiana's
Ron Artest (banned for season), Stephen Jackson (30 games), Jermaine
O'Neal (25 games) and Detroit's Ben Wallace (six games). League commissioner
David Stern called the incident "shocking, repulsive and inexcusable
– a humiliation for everyone associated with the NBA."
