Spring Break
A&M cancels pull
Thousands of fans forced to leave after chaos
By: John Farmer and Ryan Mulligan
Issue date: 2/1/07 Section: News
 Wade Barker - THE BATTALION About 6,000 fans wait in the underpass near the Rec Center Wednesday night to pull tickets for the men's A&M-UT basketball game. Students were sent home at 12:20 a.m. because of the large crowd. |
5:45 Rose Belzung is one of six students who arrives early to pull tickets for Monday's game against the University of Texas. Belzung has a broken clavicle and a third-grade separation in her shoulder. However, Belzung is not daunted. "I would stand at the basketball games even if both my legs were broken," she said.
8:30 The Texas A&M men's basketball Team defeats Iowa State soundly and encourages fans to start heading toward the ever-increasing line for the ticket pull. In the next hour, organization dissolves.
9:15 Aubrey Bloom, a senior history major and head of the Reed Rowdies, arrives at the scene with two security guards. He urges people under the bridge, saying that he has a plan to organize the pull. Bloom's plan is to allow groups of students to form into 30 lines under the bridge. The front people of each line would move forward to pull tickets.
10:15 The once distinct line turns into a mass of 1,500 people. "This is absolutely ridiculous," said sophomore Ricky Schoerman. "The organized line we originally had has been completely lost, and no one seems to have a clue what's going on."
10:40 Despite the frustration about the ticket pulls, three students, Leslie Warren, Jourdan Bremmer and Jesse Petty lead the crowd in singing the Aggie War Hymn and the Spirit of Aggieland. By this point, the crowd is more than 3,000.
10:45 The mob advances forward, at first organized, but as each row progresses, the students adopt a more frantic pace. "I really have no idea what's going on right now; my gut tells me this is an hour away from falling apart," said Jimmy Smith, a sophomore.
11:00 The students decide that it is time to settle for the night, and tents sprawl out, covering the entire under walk. There is no room to move anywhere. Students arriving at 11 p.m. have no idea where this line came from. "Is there a plan? It seems to me like the only thing that's certain out here is that no one knows what's going on," said freshman Diana Lizmi. "I thought the line wasn't supposed to start forming till 11 p.m."
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