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When athletes attack: A brief history of fights between players and fans

ronartestmelee

Imagine, for a second, that you get some great tickets to a sporting event - hockey or otherwise. You decide to give the other team a clever tongue-lashing, perhaps thanks to a healthy dosage of booze or a long day at the office. It seems like a light hearted good time - after all, isn’t this why you’re at the event instead of watching from your couch? - until, of course, you notice (far too late) that a professional athlete is charging in your direction like a wayward locomotive.

What Vancouver Canucks forward Rick Rypien did last night wasn’t expected, but it was far from unprecedented ... and it was nowhere near the most dangerous (or comical) incident of its kind. Let’s take a look at some of the most unforgettable moments in which “fan-athlete interaction” became more like a contact sport, in hockey and beyond.

Boston Bruins take on Madison Square Garden

This one takes us all the way back to 1979, when multiple Boston Bruins stormed over the boards to pummel a handful of New York Rangers fans. You can see the video here and while it’s not of the highest quality, it really captures the primitive mood that must have been in the air that night. Bruins captain Terry O’Reilly was actually the first person over the boards, but our very own commentator Mike Milbury gets most of the attention for beating a fan with his own shoe.

(Shoes definitely make my top five list of “most humorous objects someone can use to pummel a fan.” Vuvuzelas and foam fingers are in a two-way race for the gold medal.)

The Ron Artest Melee

Few nights in sports left me slack-jawed quite like that incident between Ron Artest, the Indiana Pacers and fans of the Detroit Pistons back in September 2004. Artest went from playfully relaxing on an announcer/scorer’s table to rabid dog mode in a split second, charging into the crowd with frightening gusto. The rest of the staggering violence and uneasy tension comprises one of the ugliest evenings in NBA history. See for yourself in this stunning video. It’s basically an HD-remake of that Bruins-Rangers fans brawl.

selesstabbing

James O’Brien

Tennis player Monica Seles gets stabbed

Seeing Seles get stabbed by a nutty fan shook me up enough as a kid that I think that I repressed the memory to some extent. Let’s face it though; I’ll never forget the sight of Seles collapsing to the court while holding her stab wound. (Here’s a link to the video, though it captures the disturbing aftermath more than anything else.)

A handful of baseball brawls

Usually baseball-related violence is exclusively related to bench clearing brawls (or one-on-one battles, such as that indelible image of Pedro Martinez throwing ancient manager Don Zimmer to the ground). Yet you have to think with the sport’s long history coupled with the law of averages (162-game seasons = plenty of opportunities for altercations) that there would be some moments. I think former Texas Rangers pitcher Frank Fransisco might take the violent cake for throwing a chair at some fans, though.

Tie Domi, John Tortorella and the art of the water bottle squirt

It’s about time the Philadelphia Flyers’ “passionate” fan base made an appearance, right? While Domi’s water bottle squirting incident ended in a far more malicious way than Tortorella’s, both moments are refreshing bits of entertainment.

Anyway, those are some of the most memorable moments of “interaction” between fans and athletes (and one coach). Chances are pretty strong that I missed a big one or two, though, so feel free to share some other famous incidents or one of your personal heckling recollections in the comments.

And, please, make sure you’re a safe distance away from highly trained (and sometimes highly irritable) athletes before you serenade them with your witty one-liners.