Officials Investigating Scoreboard Message

Ball State officials are investigating an electronic scoreboard message that might have prompted fans to tear down the goal posts after an upset victory.

A student was injured as hundreds of fans rushed onto the field after the Cardinals’ 24-20 victory Saturday over previously unbeaten Toledo.

Andrew Bourne, 21, broke a leg and injured his back when “a goal post, person, or group of people fell on him,” the university said.

Bourne has been released from Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Ind.

With 28 seconds remaining in the game, a message flashed on the scoreboard, reading, “Do you think the goal posts are coming down? They are looking lonely.”

An intern in the athletic department was operating the scoreboard and apparently was unaware of what message would be displayed when she clicked on a computer icon labeled “goal posts,” university officials said.

“This is not a message that anyone at the university approves or condones or wants on our scoreboard,” said Heather Shupp, Ball State’s executive director of university relations. “[The student] thought that it had something to do with goal posts and probably something to do with them coming down, but we don’t know if she knew exactly what the message was going to say.”

Shupp said the message had been created last year by another student. After the message was displayed during one of last season’s games, that student was reprimanded and officials thought the message had been deleted from the computer system.

Hundreds of students already were preparing to rush the field Saturday, apparently with the intention of tearing down the goal posts, before the message appeared, Shupp said. The university is reviewing its crowd control procedures.

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