Fans behaved better at Saturday’s football game against UCLA – at least according to police statistics.
Law enforcement officials ejected 42 fans from the game, roughly half the record number ejected at the contest against Oklahoma on Sept. 16, the last home game at Autzen Stadium.
But despite patrols by Eugene police, Lane County Sheriff’s Office and crowd management personnel, flasks and liquor bottles appeared throughout the student section as marijuana smoke wafted above.
Sixty-seven percent of Saturday’s ejections were alcohol-related, police said.
Eugene police officer Dale Dawson, for example, poured two students’ vodka-filled flasks found in the student section down a drain right before half-time.
He found six flasks and kicked out 25 students for alcohol before the band took the field, Dawson said.
Several female University students drinking in the student section, who declined to be identified, said they smuggled flasks of alcohol past officials by positioning them in the crotches of their jeans. One young woman crouched by students’ feet to discreetly swig vodka.
Student Natalie Kinsey, a member of the Athletic Department Finance Committee, said she thought students behaved much better than at the Oklahoma game.
“I was very pleased,” she said. “At the Oklahoma game, I just personally witnessed a lot more drinking and smoking.”
Kinsey hoped the positive change reflects the ADFC’s efforts to promote classy fan behavior, she said.
This year, the committee launched its campaign to better fan behavior by issuing leaflets with student tickets reminding attendees to be respectful. They also produced a large banner urging respect that hangs near the entrance to the student section.
The Athletic Department has also taken measures, including offering a hotline for beleaguered fans to call during games.
Yet Southern Oregon University freshman Ryan David said he could not believe the number of people smoking pot in the student section.
“Everywhere I look, there are clouds of smoke,” he said about his first Oregon football game experience.
“Alcohol is illegal in here, but weed is illegal everywhere,” David said. “It doesn’t seem like they enforce it very much.”
David said he had already witnessed students puffing pipes several times.
“I can smell it like every five minutes,” he said.
Crowd Management Services and the dozen Eugene police officers who regulated the game also recognized the smell of marijuana, and Lane County sheriff’s deputy Bill Hollis frequently scanned the aisles of the student section for the source.
Police officials cited only one student for possession of drug paraphernalia, said Eugene police spokeswoman Melinda Kletzok.
Department of Public Safety Lt. Herb Horner, who monitored the south entrance for much of the game, agreed that fans stayed mostly under control. Non-University students trying to use University student ID cards with student tickets was the most significant problem he noticed, he said.
He pulled a stack of student tickets and IDs confiscated by half-time from his uniform pocket Saturday.
“One of the IDs we found was a female student’s from, like, four years ago,” Horner said, noting how the ID looked completely different from the current version. “She didn’t even go to school here anymore.”
James Applebee, 21, of Redwood City, Calif., visited his friends in Eugene this weekend and needed to find a way to get into the game as a University student.
He clipped a picture of ?uestlove (pronounced Questlove), the drummer from the hip-hop band The Roots and glued it directly over a student’s picture on a University ID card.
He had no problem getting into the game, he said.
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