'They were screaming for help': Students say College GameDay crowds were unsafe, out of control

Jillian Hanley arrived at Gamecock Park at 2:15 a.m. Saturday with three portable chargers, a cheap blanket and some posters. 

She and hundreds of other students were prepared to camp through the night, ready to cheer on South Carolina as ESPN’s College GameDay broadcast live in Columbia for the first time in 10 years. 

But the second-year marketing and management student never made it to the show when it aired live at 9 a.m. Instead, Hanley ended up at the hospital with a sprained leg after students crowded the entrance to the park’s entry gates.

“We were so pushed together. I had never realized how people died before in situations like that — being squeezed,” Hanley said. “But in that situation, my lungs were being pressed, like everyone was so close together, I couldn't move one part of my body, and my arm got stuck in between two people in front of me, so I physically could not get my arm back.”

Hanley fell when the gates to Gamecock Park opened a little after 5 a.m. She said she was screaming for the crowd to stop as people rushed over her, pushing her head, stomach and body to the ground.

Hanley said that at one point, the crowd pushed around her so much that she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

And Hanley is not the only one who was concerned about the events of the night. Several students told The Daily Gamecock they felt unsafe and frustrated after a confusing and hectic queuing process for College GameDay. While many arrived excited, some people said they left needing medical attention and felt frustrated by the lack of information from ESPN and the university.

Students started the night with camping gear, speakers, chairs and food. Cars drove by honking in celebration, while campers cheered back. Fans frequently chanted “Gamecocks,” and a stranger showed up with a trumpet and played the USC fight song. 

But what some students said started as a “fun time,” quickly turned into chaos, leaving them to wonder: What happened? 

A crowd forms

A few groups arrived as early as 4 p.m. on Friday to secure their spot for GameDay. 

First-year sports management student Diego Hess set up at Gamecock Park at 5 or 6 p.m. At first, there was a line, he said. But as more people started joining, a crowd began to form.

“It was super friendly, everyone was really connected, you know, trying to get to know as many people as possible,” Hess said. “But as the night went on and people just got more restless … it became a free-for-all.”

The park was set to open at 6 a.m., with the GameDay pit opening at 6:30 a.m. But three hours before, many students said people began pushing up against the gates, creating a tightly-packed crowd for multiple hours. 

Members of the crowd also started throwing objects, such as chairs, pillows and footballs, several students told The Daily Gamecock. Many students stood shoulder to shoulder with limited ability to move throughout the crowd. 

What happened next was unclear, resulting in a series of rumors that spread throughout the morning. Some students reported that event staff told them the gates were supposed to open at 3:30 a.m., causing people to move closer to the gate.

“Everyone was just so crowded, and people were throwing things,” Hess said. “Someone was throwing like their mattress topper or something, and a kid got hit in the back of the head.”

When the gates finally opened an hour early — around 5 a.m. — students speculated that either someone broke the lock or police opened the gate. 

But attendees agreed: One of the two gates was opened, students began pushing through and some people reached the GameDay pit while others were injured or left behind.

Junior psychology student Madelyn Munshower was in the center of the crowd pushing through the gate. When it opened, she was “swept off her feet." Two police officers stood on the other side of the gate, telling students to “stop pushing,” she said.

Munshower’s arms were stuck up in the air, holding a sign she had made for GameDay, and she couldn’t breathe, she said. 

“I was stuck, suspended like that for two, three minutes, and I was gripping the shoulder of the guy in front of me at one point because we were getting pushed so hard,” Munshower said. “It was like I was getting crushed, and people started panicking. They were screaming for help.”

Munshower finally made it through the gate, but the rush didn’t stop there. She and other students started sprinting towards the GameDay pit while checking in with their friends to make sure they were okay. The entire time, she was shaking, she said.

“A lot of people, including me, started calling our loved ones just to say, ‘I love you,’ because it was that terrifying,” Munshower said. 

ESPN declined to comment on students' safety concerns. A university spokesperson told The Daily Gamecock three people were treated for minor injuries.

But students told The Daily Gamecock a different story.

Hanley went to the hospital and is on crutches. Hess helped a person who banged his head against a fence and cut his eye. And other students reported multiple people fainting before and after the gates were opened.

Hess, who was among some of the first people to arrive on Friday, said he was in the GameDay pit for five minutes before it got so packed that he felt like he “couldn’t breathe.” 

“We were there for 12 hours (before) those gates open, and obviously us — the ones that were there all night — are like, ‘Oh, well, what are we doing?’” Hess said. “What was the point of all this that there's people right next to us that just got there an hour before?”

‘No one knew anything’

Some students told The Daily Gamecock they felt like there wasn’t enough communication from the university, which contributed to the issues at the gate.

College GameDay often draws large crowds with hundreds of students fighting for a spot in the coveted “pit.” In the past, several schools have provided instructions for how students should camp. 

Ahead of College Gameday in November 2017, Auburn University told students they could start lining up starting at 12 a.m. on Saturday and said students were not allowed to bring coolers to ESPN-controlled areas.

James Madison University told students they could not start lining up until 10 p.m. Friday when College GameDay came to Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 2023. JMU also told students they would be required to have a wristband to enter the pit area, and several universities planned access to restrooms or porta-potties. 

Gamecock Athletics sent out a press release Sept. 9, giving instructions for College GameDay. USC provided a schedule for an early morning shuttle starting at 5:45 p.m. but didn’t release any information about if or how students could line up for the pit or where they could access bathrooms. Some students said they relied on either Bojangles, Waffle House or a nearby gas station to use the restroom.

“It's just ridiculous,” Hess said. “We asked so many people, they told us, at first, the gates were going to open at 3:30. No one knew anything. All the workers were clueless. It was horrible.”

Fourth-year biology and psychology student Evelyn Leary arrived at Gamecock Park around 5 a.m., right before the gates opened.

“I think that they made it sound like if you got here later, you'd be fine, and I think that it was just a lot of miscommunication between students and university because people camped out and then (the gates) weren't supposed to open till 6,” Leary said.

Fourth-year operation supply chain student Caleb Shackford said students were spilling out into the street from the number of people camping, and they didn’t have many resources.

“It just seems like maybe that could have been done a little bit better,” Shackford said. “But then, on the other hand, you know, you also shouldn't be trying to push a gate down like I think that's pretty clear etiquette for students, and I think it does give the university a bad look. I don't know how this plays out at other universities, but it definitely seems out of the ordinary and definitely not something that I'm proud of.”

The first 600 students to arrive were also promised a free t-shirt and Bojangles, but since the gate opened earlier, the items weren’t given out until later. 

Munshower said she felt like she was given false information.

“I was told I was going to get food and water because I was one of the first 600 people in front of that line,”  Munshower said. “I was told that we were going to have numbered wristbands, and there was going to be a security check in, and they were going to check what we were bringing in. That was not the case, so that really could have been bad, like anything could have made it in there.”

Was it worth it?

Mushower said the event was a 'bit of a letdown' and not what she expected. After her experience, she said she’s not planning on attending another College GameDay.

“I can say I did it now, bucket list, but never again,” Munshower said. “That was definitely a scary moment, not worth it.”

When Munshower finally made it into the pit, she was asking others if they were okay. Some people were still shaking, she said. While students were recovering, a person wearing orange glasses came on stage, she said. 

“He came out, and he stood up on the circle, the little circle stage, and he was like, ‘Are y’all ready to have some fun?’” Munshower said. “And this girl who was standing near me, she yelled at him. She was like, ‘No, are you kidding me? My friends just got trampled. One had to get carried out by another girl.'”

THIS CROWD IN SOUTH CAROLINA ? pic.twitter.com/BUH9AJltGw

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 14, 2024

Some students said they felt like there was no one to go to for help.

Hanley said she she didn't feel supported by police or EMS after getting injured. She doesn’t think ESPN respected what happened, she said.

“I wish that they acknowledged the situation, because seeing all of the TikToks and YouTube videos and everything of how much fun everyone was having, and even, like, I went to the game after, which is crazy, but seeing everyone with the hard hats and the shirts and stuff afterwards — that was obviously heartbreaking,” Hanley said.

Hanley and Munshower said they wished the university and ESPN would have had more procedures in place to prevent the crowd from shoving against the gates. There could have been more barricades to control the crowd or security to screen students entering the GameDay pit, they said. 

Hanley said she grew up going to sporting events with her family, so she’s used to crowds. She came into the night thinking that she would walk away with a good story, but the events of Saturday morning proved to be something she didn’t consider, she said.

“​The story that I did want to tell is, ‘Oh yeah, we waited outside. It was crazy. People were crazy. It shows how good our spirit is for the Gamecocks, and we were in the front row with our hard hat on, our t-shirt and our breakfast, because we were true fans, and we got there at 2 a.m,’” Hanley said. “That is not the story that I can tell.”

Editor’s note: Emmy Ribero, Jenna Swenson and Sebastian Godun contributed reporting.