Huckleberries Online

UI Prez Condemns Fans’ Behavior

Posted by DFO

Feb. 3, 2009 9:15 a.m. • 23 comments

The raucous, hostile behavior of some University of Idaho fans at Thursday night’s men’s basketball game against Boise State University prompted UI Interim President Steven Daley-Laursen to send an e-mail letter to the campus community on Sunday condemning those fans’ actions. The urgency of Daley-Laursen’s letter — he did not wait until Monday to send it — emphasizes the serious consequences of what happened. His description of the behavior as “ugly, outrageous and utterly unacceptable” is entirely accurate. We are living in a time when cameras are ubiquitous. Flagrant and embarrassing behavior in public is an invitation to be filmed and made a spectacle of on the Internet. It happened in the fall at a football tailgating event. Several UI students who openly attacked BSU had their exploits filmed and posted on the Web site of BSU’s student newspaper/Holly Bowen, UI Argonaut. More here.

Question: Do you support the interim president’s reaction to fan support for the University of Idaho? Or will his reaction squelch fan reaction that has been missing for years?

23 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

moscow_minidoka on February 03 at 9:37 a.m.
Is this news? I was in the stands for the BSU v UI Humanitarian Bowl in 1998, proudly wearing my Vandals sweatshirt, when we clinched our last (to date) win against them in football. My family’s treatment at the hands of drunken Broncos was frightening.

Methinks the Interim Prez is a tad oversensitive. Granted, I wasn’t there and didn’t witness what happened, but the last thing Idaho Athletics needs is to have the fans be MORE docile… the Dome is a boring enough sporting venue as it is.
kateforkathleen on February 03 at 10:00 a.m.
I’m all for cheering on your team, and I understand the history of this rivalry, but when that cheering or trash talking turns into something that is racially charged, and makes others feel uncomfortable, I think that is where the line needs to be drawn. The University of Idaho president was correct to respond the way he did.
jazzyvandal on February 03 at 10:09 a.m.
I sent an email to the Interim President. He is blowing this way out of proportion. Chastising the student body isn’t the way to go about this. Handle problems when they happen. That’s why there’s security there and the PA guy announces the WAC sportsmanship policy. If things get out of hand, get on the PA and remind the students of the sportsmanship policy.

I was at the Nevada game Saturday (but not the BSU game) and the fans were awesome. The atmosphere was something I’ve never seen at a Vandal basketball game. There were a handful of idiots, but that occurs at every game. There’s idiot fans in every fanbase and crude behavior at a college sporting event does not shock or surprise me.

I wonder if the UI President has ventured into Bronco stadium with Vandal gear on or driven in Boise with Vandal license plates. Is Bob Kustra going to apologize how BSU fans or players treat Idaho fans? I think not.
Nick_Adams on February 03 at 1:45 p.m.
The U of I pres needs to gain some perspective. Of course, there are always going to be jerks at any event—on both sides.

I was at the BSU-Vandal game where this happened and didn’t experience anything out of the ordinary for a rivalry game. My girlfriend is a HUGE Vandal fan and I’m a BSU fan and we were seated in the middle of the Vandal faithful. No problems.

Although, the young guy next to me, who reeked of booze kept slamming his fist into his own thigh and swore vehemently every time either Vandals botched a play or the Broncos made a good play. He made me a bit nervous. However, his issues seemed to go way deeper than the success/failure of the Vandals.
Nick_Adams on February 03 at 1:49 p.m.
Related and relevent: I attended a football game a few years back on the East coast where the guys wore jackets and ties and women dresses or skirts. Everyone was enthusiastic, but very polite. It creeped me out.
DFO on February 03 at 2:06 p.m.
Nick; a follow-up story in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News indicates there were racial overtones to the unruliness — with some Vandal fans screaming epithets at a Hispanic player. I hope that’s not the case. I’ll be curious how this plays out.
Nick_Adams on February 03 at 2:34 p.m.
DFO—Don’t get me wrong. Hate speech and violence should never be tolerated (in any arena, not just sports). With the video/photograph evidence they seem to have, this would be more effective if they’d waited until they tracked down the offenders, named them and punished them publicly, not just offer blanket statements about inappropriate behavior.
jazzyvandal on February 03 at 2:44 p.m.
DFO, the only chant I heard over the radio was a sexual reference, not a racial chant. I think the president thinks it is a racial chant, but it is not. All you have to do is google the reference or look on urban dictionary.
Cabbage Boy on February 03 at 2:50 p.m.
Marketing. Sheer marketing. By garnering all the attention for this faux outrage, UI is getting tons of free pub. And of course, they get to keep mentioning that they finally beat Boise.

Does a prospective student, especially an athletic type, give one hoot about rowdy obnoxious fans? I highly doubt it.
eclafitz on February 03 at 8:18 p.m.
Sorry the term is ‘dirty sanchez’, one can google it if they would like to find out what it means. I was at the game and it was not any different than games in Boise have been or any rivalry game for that matter. All the Interim pres, and Dean Seamen (of our Law school) have done is caused the *****fication of our student bodie’s ability to cheer. There was nothing worse at that game then when Idaho got crushed at Gonzaga earlier this year with Gonzaga’s cheering section (which is the best one around i.m.h.o.). Mountain meet molehill…
JamesBond on February 03 at 8:33 p.m.
Downplaying and justifying the widespread use of racial and sexual epithets by Vandal fans, as has now been reported by the Moscow Pullman Daily News, is shameful. I thought we got rid of this crap when we finally ran out Butler. Enough!
moscow_minidoka on February 04 at 7:50 a.m.
Dirty Sanchez is sexual, not racial! Get hip to the new slang! Would it be racist if the students had called him an erectile dysfunction?

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.