Sports columnist’s leg broken as fans storm court after Iowa State-Iowa basketball game

A columnist covering the No. 4 Iowa State-Iowa basketball game Thursday suffered a broken leg when fans stormed the court after the Cyclones’ comeback victory over the Hawkeyes.

Iowa State guard Monte Morris hit a jumper to give his team an 83-82 lead with 10 seconds left in the second half, capping a 20-point rally to keep the Cyclones’ record an unblemished 8-0.

The more than capacity crowd then streamed onto the floor in typical college basketball-upset fashion. In the rush of fans onto the court, Des Moines Register columnist Randy Peterson suffered a broken tibia and fibia when he “locked legs with someone” he later tweeted.

He also said he wasn’t trampled by the crowd.

“In fairness, we still do not know exactly what happened,” Iowa State Athletics Director Jamie Pollard said in a statement.

Iowa State Coach Steve Prohm told the Des Moines Register: “I hate that Randy got hurt. That’s terrible. But, my thing, I was trying to go see my wife, to be honest with you. It was a great moment. That’s part of college basketball.”

It’s also a part of college basketball that has come under increasing scrutiny because of the potential danger facing coaches and athletes, not to mention reporters.

Last season, when Kansas State fans stormed the court after a win over No. 8 Kansas, a video of the frenzied event showed Jayhawks Coach Bill Self getting pinned against the scorers’ table and one fan purposefully running into a player.

“That’s part of college athletics. That’s a great moment,” Prohm said of fans storming the court Thursday. “Those college kids ... they’ve been camping out here [for tickets] for three days. There’s only probably 10 schools that do that in the country. Give them their 15 or 20 minutes to do that. I thought it was pretty cool.”

Follow Matt Wilhalme on Twitter @mattwilhalme