USA Today: Safer Goalposts (SMU Incident Mentioned)

[MrMustang1965]

By Andy Gardiner, USA TODAY

This season Clemson and West Virginia installed goal posts that can be lowered to the ground in a matter of seconds, thus preventing injuries to fans who storm the field after big football victories.

That's exactly what happened Saturday night at Southern Methodist when a student was sent to the hospital after a celebration that included a traditional, yet dangerous, tearing down of the goal posts.

Clemson's folds up mechanically, and West Virginia's is done manually.

The Clemson system works off a hydraulic cylinder in the center post that raises and lowers the post. The Mountaineers have copied a hinged construction used by Iowa since the late 1980s that uses a six- to eight-man crew with pitchfork-like yokes to bring the posts to the ground.

Jim Snider, a football official, created the Clemson system, which cost the school $30,000 (a standard set of goal posts runs about $5,000). It can be operated by remote control and takes about 15 seconds to bring the posts flat to the ground.

Two years ago Clemson students rushed the goal posts after a 27-20 victory against archrival South Carolina, leaving one student with a concussion and a security officer with a broken collarbone and ribs. Students pulled down the posts again last year after beating Florida State. The new system worked without a hitch this season when the Tigers went into overtime to beat Wake Forest.

"If you had told me we'd drop $30,000 on goal posts, I'd have said you were crazy," senior associate athletics director Katie Hill says.

"But what price do you put on safety?"

West Virginia security personnel were forced to use pepper spray to fend off fans who tried to tear down the goal posts last October after the Mountaineers beat Virginia Tech.

"After (the Tech game) we decided to make a change," says Russ Sharp, WVU's associate athletics director for facilities. "We got a set of plans (from Iowa), and they even have a videotape that shows the process of taking them down."

West Virginia also has a backup set of goal posts, which Sharp says cost $6,000-$7,000. They can be lowered in from seven to 12 seconds.

The SMU student injured Saturday, identified as Garrett Haake by Baylor University Medical Center spokesman Craig Munos, was listed in fair condition Monday. The family did not want further information released, but The Dallas Morning News reported Haake was bleeding from the side of the head after the incident.