off-the-wall fan stories

[DanGenck]

I would also like to add that during a St. John's vs. Gustavus Adolphus football game a few years ago, there was a funny heckling incident.

A St. John's fan had been really giving #5 from Gustavus a hard time. Finally, while the Gustavus offense was basically running plays out of their own endzone, the heckling came to the peak when the St. John's fan yelled out during a Gustavus huddle...

"Hey, #7!" (The fans stopped for a moment, wondering if maybe the focus of the heckling had changed...)

"Tell #5 he sucks!"

The Gustavus players all started laughing and after that, the heckling slowed to a dull roar.

[LivenLAX06]

I just started college this spring at Liberty University which is a Christian school. Every game fans for opposing teams would try and rag on us. I remember when we played Elon a fan yelled "Hey #6 wheres ur bible at" I turned to the kid and said " I left it on ur moms dresser, Ill be over later to get it" Everyone in the stands and field was crackin up.

[UofMLaxGoalie11]

i remember my dad telling me a story of a business school with a football team that would always get creamed. one of their most popular chants when they were losing would be "thats alright, thats ok, cause we'll be your boss some day."

[FormerTiger]

LSU played Georgia in baseball at Georgia a few years back. Some students that regularly sit in the bleachers behind right field had a good idea. They called our Right Fielders mom and said that they were with the Baton Rouge Newspaper and they were doing a story on her son. They asked a lot of legit questions, but then they asked if her son had any teddy bears or a blanky when he was little. After she confirmed the existence of "binky bear", he hung up and told everyone that he sits with in the bleachers about it.....suffice if to say that our outfielder heard about binky bear all night long

[BearcatLax]

When Willamette played at Whitman College last year several of the frat guys on couches there started yelling "#6 is a witch! Burn him! He's a witch! Burn him at the stake!" An odd reference to the fact that we were from Salem...Oregon however. Only at Whitman do you get references to 400 year old legends while you play lacrosse.

Myself and several teammates here at WU played in the 1A and 2A classification in high school, the lowest and smallest classification in Oregon high school sports, this leading to encounters with various small hick towns where there ethics are less than up to date with the rest of the free world. This gave us several memorable stories:

When playing in a gym that could literally be described as a band box, the out of bounds area between the lines and the wall was 12 inches, enough for fans to cram around the entire edge of the court on all three sides not including the bench and heckle us up close and personally. This came to an interesting head when an opposing fan pushed a player in the corner with the ball off balance so that he fell out of bounds. Strangely (perhaps not considering several of the players were offspring of the refs themselves) nothing was called on this play and the ball was awarded to the opposing team.

In the infamous town of Knappa, OR home to the Mighty Loggers, fans are known for their love of the game and more for their unmatched heckling. While a visiting player shot free throws, a small baby was placed on the loudspeaker and awkward and offputting gurgles echoed through the now silent gymnasium.

Also in Knappa, fans angered over calls held up a specially made newspaper whose headline read in giant print "LOCAL REF KILLED AFTER BAD CALLS." This was one of the more shocking things I witnessed.

At Franklin High School in Portland, I was fortunate enough to have my life threatened several times by various angry mothers after I had proclaimed their lacrosse team was "playing scared."

At Aloha High School several locals stood behind the opposite end of the field with a gigantic spotlight, turning it on and off flashing it in our goalie's eyes as Aloha players took shots on our goalie (it was a night game). Fortunately for Aloha, the refs ignored our pleas to tell the fans to leave (refs are never biased! ha!)

And in conclusion my personal favorite was when an actual ref in our game proclaimed the entire Willamette University lacrosse team to be "a bunch of hacks." Perhaps the only call he got right all game.

[onpoint]

Ah yes, the infamous, "you'll be working for us someday," reference. We got that one from Stanford in the 2001 championship game (they were being waxed). That prompted one of our more famous talkers to proclaim, "that's fine, because you're working for us now."

[laxfan25]

And in conclusion my personal favorite was when an actual ref in our game proclaimed the entire Willamette University lacrosse team to be "a bunch of hacks." Perhaps the only call he got right all game.

A few weeks ago I was reffing at a middle school jamboree - 8 fields with 14 games each in one day! 40 minute games with 20 min. running halves. I did 8 games in a row, and in the last game this one oversized defenseman was just crazy with his stick. I had already penalized him a couple times, and with the clock counting down 5-4-3, he just slashes this little kid hard across the legs. I was so PO'd, I went up to him and said "you're a disgrace! Your mother should be ashamed of you!" He spit out his mouthpiece as he tried to spit in my direction. One of the few times I've lost my cool out there, but I really felt like smackin' the kid (and I still do now that I recollect the moment!)

[Brent Burns]

A few weeks ago I was reffing at a middle school jamboree - 8 fields with 14 games each in one day! 40 minute games with 20 min. running halves. I did 8 games in a row, and in the last game this one oversized defenseman was just crazy with his stick. I had already penalized him a couple times, and with the clock counting down 5-4-3, he just slashes this little kid hard across the legs. I was so PO'd, I went up to him and said "you're a disgrace! Your mother should be ashamed of you!" He spit out his mouthpiece as he tried to spit in my direction. One of the few times I've lost my cool out there, but I really felt like smackin' the kid (and I still do now that I recollect the moment!)

I am not sure if most of you have heard about Frenchy Julien, the famed lax ref many, many years ago. He will know how laxfan25 felt about the d-man slashing the little kid. I would love to see how Frenchy would deal with this guy.

It has been many years ago (I would say it has been about 8 years ago) that someone mentioned about his fond memory about being penalized by Frenchy twice in a row for his cussing. Frenchy was able to overhear him cussing and then threw the yellow flag. This guy was really mad and asked him why he was penalized, and Frenchy replied with a word that deals with profanity and cussing. This guy again spew out an expletive as to inquiring what the word meant, and he was penalized again for cussing.

[TexOle]

I was doing a non USL-MDIA game with another ref. This was a college game, but I think that some of the JH teams I have seen could beat these guys. As the other ref and I are watching the warmups he looks over at me and tells me that both teams are a bunch of hacks so call the game close.

I played goalie for a little bit at St. Olaf. My first game in goal we were getting destroyed. I might have been playing a little dodgeball. I took a shot to the nuts. The ref came up to me and told me there would not be a 4second count. I wish someone had told me what that count was before the game. Another ref that game told me that game told me he felt sorry for me because my teams defense was so bad.