Strangest/Funniest Things You Have Seen at a Game

[TriangleUKCat]

What are some of the strangest/funniest moments you've seen at a UK basketball game that didn't really involve the game itself? Spectators, mascots, technical glitches, etc.

Mine:

Winter 2002 (or early 2003), Rupp Arena: I randomly woke up thinking about this incident today, which precipitated the thread.

UK had recently unveiled the ill-fated mascot Tucky, one of those inflatable suit things. I believe its tongue was operated by the suit wearer's arm. A few minutes before tipoff, Tucky is walking interacting with fans when he approaches a girl along the baseline. Suddenly, the tongue flies out and punches this girl right in the face. She yells and the guy she was with screams "What the hell man?". An usher who witnessed the whole thing immediately led them both to the back. Tucky ambled over to another exit area. Don't recall ever seeing him again. No idea if it was intentional or what but was really odd.

January 2008, UK vs. UGA, Athens: witnessed UGA's version of Tucky falling in slow motion down like 20 stairs in the upper arena. Rate of speed was so slow it seemingly defied science.

Winter 2003, UK vs. LSU, Rupp Arena: Game that occurred hours before that heinous ice storm. Witnessed someone pouring Hershey syrup on their nachos.

 

[wildcatsboston1984]

Not a Kentucky game, but I was working a basketball game and a grown ass woman, well into the grandmother age range, brought in a cat stuffed animal. She didn't have any kids with her, she was all by herself. And she was petting it like it was a real cat.

 

[Teachable Moe]

Everyone using credit/debit cards to pay for food at the Blue/White game a couple of years ago. The line moved so slowly I missed most of the 3rd quarter. Stale popcorn and wrinkly hot dogs. I guess I found it funny because the food was so bad.

 

[TriangleUKCat]

Stale popcorn and wrinkly hot dogs. I guess I found it funny because the food was so bad.

Yeah that would have made me laugh too.

The first time my wife attended a game at Rupp, she was baffled by the mass pilgrimage to get soft serve ice cream and in general the massive consumption of it that you could see everywhere. No telling how much game time people who regularly attend/get ice cream miss in a given season. Probably have the timing down decently but it still has to be appreciable.

 

[bthaunert]

When I ran the Palestra in Philly, I saw all kinds of stuff. My last year there, Saint Joseph's basketball arena was undergoing renovation, so they played all of their home games at the Palestra too. Loooong season between Penn's men;'s and women's teams and Saint Joseph's men's and women's team. Two stories that stick out:

1. Our AD at Penn was an asshole. After Penn lost on a controversial call, he ran out of his seats on to the floor and after the officials. I was one of the peopel holding him and trying to talk some sense into him. I'll never forget that.
2. A couple of guys sitting behind the basket had 1 too many cocktails before the game. In the first half, one of them gave our junior high kid who would wipe the sweat up after free throws and such $20 to let him take the broom handle sweeper out and dry the sweat in between free throws. Sure enough, first shot goes in and there he is out there drying the sweat in the lane.

 

[BlueSince92]

Travis Ford taking a charge from Shaquille O'Neal.

I also saw a little blonde cheerleader doing a long series of backflips take out a ref. But that was a distant second.

 

[nyron]

Tommy Kearns jumping center against Wilt Chamberlain.

 

[davekersey]

James Young's save from out of bounds that went in the opponents basket

 

[Federal Cat]

The dancing bandit guy, he always cracks me up or maybe I'm just jealous cuz I can't dance in front of 24,000 fans

 

[uky8unc5]

I was there in St Pete...1998 Billy Packer: "What is Magloire doing to Wojo??"

 

[wildcatsboston1984]

Once saw a woman have a cat on a leash, like you would have a dog on a leash, at a softball game I was working.

 

[Pope John Wall II]

Tom Crean.

 

[EvilMD]

That Bama fan who had a big head made up of himself making a face.

 

[lacocat]

already pointed to the bad doll why does IU keep mailing me

 

[*Bleedingblue*]

Dancing dude.
He was on a rail gyrating on it. Totally uncalled for and highly embarrassing.

Was playing in a tournament and while we were watching in the stands one of the guys of the team on our side of the court was all of a sudden trying to get his coaches attention. Coach looked at him with this wth look on his face and he said somethig back to his coach and his coach yelled at him to go--go --Go!! Kid got up in pain and then he grabbed his back end and just stood their. Sat back down and calmly said something to the assistant. Assistant said something to coach and coach looked pissed off and the manager got a Bunch of Towel's and wrapped around dude.
We played next and of course we had that side of the court and after warming up we noticed coaches looking at this chair. Chair had poo smeared on it and running down one of the legs. That chair was quickly kicked out of the way.


At a game their was this kid who looked a little slow/ mental problems and was wearing jogging pants. I found out later his sister was one of the cheer leaders and why she was so upset with him as he was aggrevating the girl next to her.
He had a woody in his jogging pants lmao. Looked like Ron Burgandy in the movie the anchorman hahaha
While I was standing mid court I asked the guy from the other team about that and he said that guy always has wood all the time and always wears jogging pants and he had some kind of mental illness. Said he would go up to girls and ask em if they liked his wood in school lmao

While being recruited to play for a HS that was a ways away I sat behind the bench. Their head coach had a towell he threw over his shoulder to wipe his sweat away. Coach looked pissed off all the time, well I guess he was pissed off because he routinely grabbed his players by the hair and tilt their head sideways while yelling at them. He took that towell and would just hit guys with it if he didn't like what they were doing or not doing. He kicked their wing player in the ass because he didn't move to the block when the ball was swung to the opposite side of the court. Kicked him hard. Lol it was one thing after another. He was more entertaining than the players.
Parents were sitting in the stands around me and were telling coach to get em. Set em right, you tell em coach, hit em again. Etc etc Lolol
He got results because his teams routinely made the playoffs and won some state titles. Put lots of guys in colleges playing ball. This was like 35 yrs ago he ended up being fired after half the team went and complained. Think that happened in the mid 90's.
He then went to a school that routinely won only like 3-4 games a year and turned them into a nice program and played for a state title. Heard he had toned it down a lot but he got fired as well from their. Neither of those schools is worth a nickel today. Amazing what a hard nosed coach will do.

And no I never played for him as it was too far away for me.

Played for a coach for 2 yrs and he got fired cause he was an alcoholic and drank too much and I guess he passed out in his chair I was playing on the court and didn't know what was going on. Lol he was cool as hell though, if you seen him with his coffee thermos I guarentee you it wasn't coffee lol
We knew he drank all the time.

 

[Jazzycat]

Have seen quite a few former players at games....met Danny Ferry once when he was scouting players at the SEC tournament.

 

[nyron]

All the fans using their cell phones to connect to the outside world while Patrick Sparks' 3-pointer was being reviewed.