Good explanation about how UGA fans were treated in USCe during 2012

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My name is Russell J., I am the president and founder of the UGA Alumni Association. Myself and 7 other alumni made the drive from Atlanta to Columbia for the USCe-UGA this past Saturday.

Upon arriving to the stadium roads were blocked to get to lot H, the lot where the UGAAA tailgate was being held, so we were told to drive all the way around the other side. We then had to ask 3 different staff members how to get to lot H and about half way through the drive around the stadium we were told by police to turn back because lot H was closed. This whole ordeal took about 20 minutes and could have easily been avoided if once lot H was full, it was told to the people at the entrance gate.

We walked around half of the parking lot to find the tailgate and only saw one pair of police officers walking around. Once we found the tailgate and finally settled in, we noticed that we were completely out numbered and surrounded. USCe fans kept running through our tailgate, or coming up to members with the noise makers and starting shouting and pushing matches. About 30 minutes in, as we were all standing around talking, I looked up to see a glass bottle of beer flying straight for my friends head. Another UGAAA member reached out his hand and deflected it and the bottle struck my friend in the back. I say this is lucky only because the bottle did not strike him in the head, if it had Im sure he would have had to go to the hospital.

Things calmed down for the next half hour, we decided to walk around and noticed that there were nice USCe fans who wanted to take pictures with us and wish us luck in the game. Upon arriving back to the tailgate we noticed that about 8 police officers had moved into the area, even though they should have been there in the first place. There were more bottles, cans and other objects thrown into our tailgate, and more clashes of pushing and shouting matches. I was informed by another fan member via twitter yesterday that in one of these clashes a member was hit in the face with a Jack Daniels bottle by a USCe fan. Where was the security?

When we marched to the stadium a few hours later we arrived at an open gate and were told that we couldn't enter through that gate, we were not given a reason. There were about 200-300 UGA fans pinned in a corner, we moved to the next gate over, I was leading the pack and asked the woman in charge of security of that gate if we could get it. I was informed that it was a handicapped entrance only and we would have to get in line. I told the woman that for security reasons it wouldn't be wise to cram us in line with the USCe fans. She told me that if she let us in she would be fired, and if we get attacked we should just "sue the police". I don't want to say who should, or shouldn't be hired to work at these events, but I can say that it was very obvious this woman had no interest in keeping us safe and was merely there to collect a paycheck.

I ushered the UGA fans into line where I witnessed about 5 fights while waiting to get to the entrance gate, I saw UGA fans, including women and children, pushed, verbally harassed, and spit on.

I want to make this a huge point. As I walked into the stadium the person checked my ticket, and let me in. There was no pat down, no metal detector, no wand, not even a bag search. He checked my ticket and said "go".

I could have brought a knife, a firearm, a bomb. Really anything I could have fit into my bag or hidden on my person would have gotten into that game with me.

When we arrived to our section it was riddled with USCe fans, the section was supposed to be UGA supporters only, or at least that's what we were told. Every single section surrounding us was 99% filled with Carolina fans. We were sitting ducks.

As the game went on we were pelted with anything you can imagine, at one point I was hit with a blowup sex doll. My friends were hit with coins, bottles and beer. One of the UGA fans in our section got hit with a bottle flung in from who knows where and turned to a security guard to complain about the lack of action, the security guard stood up on a higher seat, towered over the man and screamed "Turn around and watch the fricking game!". I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not. Turning and looking up at the crowd all I could see between things flying at my head, were fights. I witnessed a UGA fan walk past our section, face bloodied, barely walking, as if he was in a war zone trying to get himself to safety, finally a security guard spotted and helped him.

The main issue I have with the whole day is what happened to our female members, one of them was sexually harassed and groped. This I will not stand for. I would gladly take a bottle to the face to make sure that this NEVER has to happen to any female fan, ever. After the game me and my friends got out of the stadium as fast as possible.

I know that the University of South Carolina is not at fault for what happened on Saturday, but I do know there are things you can do to make sure it does not happen again.

After putting my story on twitter I received messages from people about their horrible experiences at the stadium as UGA fans. One girl who went with her father had to leave at half time from getting attacked and having beer poured on them. I truly feel sorry for those UGA fans that weren't in our large group, they must have been like a piece of meat to a pack of wolves. There very little security help, and the security guards did pretty much the bare minimum.

My question is how long until some one is killed, or a girl is raped. These things seem severe but what I witnessed at this game was the precursor to those acts. Some of these USCe fans have nothing but pure hatred for the UGA fans. I know not every fan is bad, but when your outnumbered by about 90,000 people, the bad eggs are gonna be there in full force.

I love college football, I've done all I can to make sure that it grows in this country, and I will continue to support and fight for the sport. But I cannot defend what happened on Saturday, and if we lose fans because of it, I can not blame them.

Please do what you can to make sure this never happens again. No fan should ever have to go through what me and my friends went through on Saturday. If you need anything else from me I will be more than happy to help.

Sincerely,

Russell J.

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