Guess which football team’s most unhinged supporters helped inspire sports journalist Justine
Gubar to write a book about the excesses of fans?
Yes, it was Ohio State.
When rabid Buckeyes fans learned that Gubar, an ESPN producer, was visiting Columbus in 2011 to
dig into the football program in the wake of the scandal that cost coach Jim Tressel his job, they
responded with threats, hatred and misogyny.
Many insulted her appearance. Someone posted her home phone number in California online,
resulting in a flood of nasty voice mails. One fan warned her to stop doing her job or “Buckeye
Nation will not show you mercy.”
Gubar recounts the experience in
Fanaticus: Mischief and Madness in the Modern Sports Fan (Rowman & Littlefield, 232
pages, $35), an examination of what drives some fans to issue threats, overturn cars and commit
assaults.
OSU’s lunatic fringe opens the book because Gubar had personal experience with it, but she
writes that such behavior — and far worse — happens throughout the world.
The first sports riot on record occurred during a gladiator match in A.D. 59 in Pompeii — where
rival fans clashed, killing and injuring dozens, Gubar writes.
In the 25 years between 1988 and 2013, 234 people suffered violent deaths in and near Brazilian
soccer stadiums — including a referee who was
beheaded by a crowd after he stabbed a player to death on the field.
Gubar also recounts lesser examples of fanaticism: the Arizona State students who shouted “PLO,
PLO” at an Arizona player whose father had been assassinated by terrorists in Lebanon; the
Massachusetts soccer dad who tried to blind the opposing goalie with a laser; death threats for
missed free throws.
Gubar reviews some suggested fixes (banning alcohol at stadiums and eliminating anonymous
Internet posting, for example) but ultimately concludes that bad fan behavior is just part of human
nature.
“Our brain is primed for aggression,” she says.
In researching the book, she tracked down two of her OSU tormentors to ask them about their
behavior.
One, a recent OSU graduate who had declared her “not even on the same level as a prostitute,”
cursed and ordered her off his campus-area porch. The other, a recent grad who had moved to
Florida, said his “no mercy” threat was “all in the fun of sports.”
Since the book came out in June, Gubar said in an interview, she hasn’t heard much from OSU’s
crazy contingent.
But some of the team’s sane supporters have been in touch.
“I’ve gotten some messages of apology which really struck me as interesting — like people
reaching out and saying, ‘I’m from Ohio, and I want to apologize on behalf of our fan base.’ ”
@joeblundo
