Missouri cracking down on rowdy fans

After another goalpost takedown, MU sets up task force

? Storming the field and tearing down football goalposts after a big Missouri win is a tradition school officials are looking to end.

After the arrest of 20 fans on trespassing charges following Saturday’s 41-24 victory over Nebraska, Missouri athletics officials said Monday they were forming an internal task force to discuss ways to stem fan rowdiness.

Gleeful fans carried chunks of the goalposts downtown, where they wielded hacksaws to cut off pieces for individual keepsakes. Fans who rushed the field were encouraged by several Missouri players to do so.

Athletics spokesman Chad Moller said the university appreciated fan enthusiasm but that rushing the field stepped over the line.

“We don’t condone that act, and we try to do everything we can to prevent it,” he said. “It’s not a safe situation, and it can obviously hurt a number of people.”

Moller declined to say whether any players who encouraged fans to swarm Faurot Field would be disciplined.

The same day Missouri fans rushed the field to tear down goalposts, a student at the University of Minnesota-Morris died doing the same thing during a homecoming game.

Richard Thomas Rose, of Benton City, Wash., was killed Saturday at the Minnesota school. The cause of death was suspected to be a blow from the goalpost, school officials said.