Three male students at the University of Cincinnati were stopped by police after driving an SUV onto the football field. Lieutenant Mark Zacharias offered a hilariously simple explanation for how it happened.
In fact, it is rather surprising that a similar incident has not happened before!
UC police responded to Nippert Stadium at approximately 2:15 a.m. on Friday morning. They discovered the trio of students whipping their vehicle all over the turf field upon arrival.
Someone went for a joy ride on Nippert last night pic.twitter.com/YnD7iJ2ko4
— Barstool Cincinnati (@UCBarstool) October 18, 2024
Fortunately, there was no damage to the playing surface. They almost got away with it too. Had the police shown up just a few minutes later, the car would’ve been gone.
No damage. (They) Just drove out to the 50-yard line, took a picture and started to leave when we stopped them.
— Lt. Mark Zacharias
Instead, the driver was cited with criminal trespass and some traffic offenses. Lt. Zacharias let him go as soon as he finished writing up the ticket. He was in fairly good spirits about what happened.
… just some students having a good Homecoming weekend!
— Lt. Mark Zacharias
Nippert Stadium is open to the public at all hours of the day. It is often used for intramural sports, pick-up games of two-hand touch or workouts on the field. That likely will not change as result of the joyride.
However, Lt. Zacharias told Fox 19 that he expects the university to close off its larger gates so that an SUV cannot get into the stadium moving forward. For whatever reason, there was nothing to stop a car from driving onto the field in the past. We saw a need for change on early Friday morning.
The stadium is designed where you can pretty much drive out there at any given time. They found the right entry and made their way onto the field. I am sure that will change in the near future.
— Lt. Mark Zacharias
This is not the first time that a fan drove onto the football field during the 2024/25 college football season. A hit-and-run suspect barreled his way into Folsom Field at the University of Colorado earlier this year.
The incident in Cincinnati was a lot less serious and the police department’s reaction to what happened indicates the lack of concern. All things considered, they were pretty cool about it.