SMU Diary
SMU Diary is a first-person feature where a reporter describes an unusual Hilltop experience.
As I walked down the steps of the Gerald J. Ford football stadium, swarms of students in red shirts lined section 122. Overflowing into the aisles and the neighboring section, cheering fans hollered as the Mustangs charged the field.
Because the student section was more than full, I found a seat on the second row of section 123. I stood on the crowded bench with other students echoing the cheerleaders: “Go red, go blue, go Mustangs, SMU!”
As the first quarter got underway, the Mustangs scored the game’s first touchdown. But a brush-fire of fumbles and turnovers spread like the pre-game fireworks fiasco.
As the student section began to heat up, the hoard of misplaced students in section 123 were approached by Event Staff and asked to move to the student section.
Two men in light blue shirts pushed though the crowds, moving from student to student, pointing to the student section.
Scowl-faced students made for the aisles, while others vigilantly remained behind. There was nowhere for them to go. The student section was already full. As the students lined the aisles, police officers stepped in to intervene.
After I exchanged words with the police about whose seats these were and where exactly I was supposed to move, I wedged myself into the sixth row of section 122.
I was sandwiched between sweaty fans, too angry about being uprooted to focus on the game.
Guy Bellaver, standing his ground between the railing and the front row of 123, battled with twelve unrelenting police officers as he was asked to move from his seat into another section.
Police officers warned him they had a place for people like him. Demanding to know whose seat he was sitting in, Bellaver refused to move. He was forcefully grabbed by the upper arm and escorted into the police office located inside the stadium.
After agreeing not to be involved in any other conflicts, Bellaver was released and allowed back into the game.
“I would have had no problem vacating the section,” Bellaver said. “I think the excessive use of the officers’ authority created a much more volatile situation.”
By the time that the controversy had subsided, so had the first half.
The score: 28 – 7, Navy.
