The Branding Iron wanted to further investigate sportsmanship at the University of Wyoming. Both Chad Baldwin, the spokesman for the university, and Tom Burman, the athletic director for the university were contacted for an interview. Burman declined.
Sportsmanship at UW has been an ongoing theme throughout publication, dating as far back as 1925. Although it has been noticed by a few fans from UW and visiting teams, administration seems to think there isn’t an issue.
“I think anybody who goes to football games will sometimes see behavior they’re not very comfortable with,” Baldwin said.
“I have no way to compare, I don’t believe that people of Wyoming are any worse than anybody else in the country, or any better necessarily, when it comes to [sportsmanship]. This fan behavior has been an issue for probably as long as there have been audiences at sporting contests, and we’re not we’re no different than anywhere else.”
Even though there is not an issue being acknowledged, there are correctional measures being used to keep the more extreme fans at bay.
“If people are throwing things, they are kicked out. If people persist in harassing behavior and behavior where they’re harassing the other team, or they’re getting in an altercation with other fans, the police department intervenes and kicks them out,” Baldwin said.
“I personally observed the police officer warn that person that if he kept it up, he was gonna be kicked out and he stopped.”
He continued, “It’s difficult in those sorts of situations to always catch everybody, but the security team and the University Police and the other law enforcement who are there do their best to try to keep things under control.”
When asked specifically about the “ref beats his wife,” Baldwin recalled the chant being used when he was a student at UW.
“If I were to say right off hand, it probably does have First Amendment protection. They’re people expressing frustration with officials, which happens at all games. That particular one it’s not anything about race or gender or just maybe maybe an ill conceived attempt at humor.”
“This has been going on for a long, long time. I don’t think it’s necessarily any worse now than it has been. The university is doing its best to try to maintain a family atmosphere at our athletic contests and particularly home football,” he said.
Every year, administration is contacted by upset fans from both sides of the field over certain behavior and things that are said, but little is done to correct it.
“I think the administration really doesn’t control culture. Administration can do some things, and is doing some things, but people’s behavior is people’s behavior.”
As for the “things” mentioned, there was no elaboration. Other than legal matters or extreme cases of misbehavior, it seems nothing is being done to control the crowd’s profanities as a whole.
Even with this stance that there is no issue, Baldwin addresses the fact that the behavior hasn’t shifted throughout the years, and has always been an issue.
“I’m just thinking back to when I was a student, I’m not sure if things have gotten worse. It’s a persistent issue,” he said.
“The university actually is taking a stronger stand now than it ever has on this. The messaging that’s done is stronger than it’s ever been and we just hope that our fans can find the proper balance of being noisy and helpful for the team versus being offensive to both visiting teams and visiting fans.”
