Most venues when a guy comes into an arena with a strong history of success and it's the last time, he will ever wrestle in that venue the fans typically show their respect. Last year when Gable Stevenson came to Carver, the Iowa fans gave him a standing ovation at the end of his match. Iowa has a history of this type of class. I've never heard Carver boo someone during pre-match introductions. I've heard the boos when a guy showboats, puts his hand behind his ear after a win or acts like an idiot etc., but never pre match. I was shocked. I go back to an interview Spencer did recently when he said, the fans have been awesome and have been nice to him in arenas across the country. Telling him how much they have enjoyed watching him etc. I hope parents of future wrestlers see Friday night as I do. A total lack of respect and class and not something I would want my kid to be around. It was classless and a totally unnecessary act--pre-match and during the introductions. I have actually never seen or heard of a venue doing that in the past to anyone. I don't think Spencer has played a villain during his college years to earn that type of disdain. It tells me a lot about the current PSU fan base and it's not a good look!
State College Booing Spencer pre-match showed a total lack of class!
- Thread starter Descat1
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I was definitely bothered by the booing. Not how it should be handled of course.
Obviously nothing in the same stratosphere as what Iowa sports fans have done in the past at home (throw beer cans at black wrestlers, scream racial epithets, boo football players when they incur season ending injuries, etc.), but I agree that booing Spencer was out of character and reflected poorly on us.
Obviously nothing in the same stratosphere as what Iowa sports fans have done in the past at home (throw beer cans at black wrestlers, scream racial epithets, boo football players when they incur season ending injuries, etc.), but I agree that booing Spencer was out of character and reflected poorly on us.
Should have stuck with the first 2 sentences. Instead, your turning of the tables will lead to Sandusky and everything else you bitch about. You just wear that like a badge of honor. You’ve earned it.
Yep - instead of bringing up what a handful of idiots did maybe he should have mentioned the standing ovation Gable Steveson received last year?
The Gable thing was great. Loved seeing it.
I think because season tickets are for the much smaller Rec Hall, when they suddenly open the BJC to 10,000 more people, you dilute a lot of the more knowledgeable fan base and attract more…erratic individuals.
What's interesting is listening to interviews throughout Spencer's career he has always reflected on being a PA boy. He has stated often how much he loved wrestling in PA. Wrestling on PA teams through Schoolboy, Cadets and Juniors and of course every time he is introduced, they mention either Franklin Regional or Murrysville PA. I was surprised by the introduction in his last scholastic match in PA for him to be booed... It is sad when we take sports to that level. Booing a kid from PA that has battled, perhaps, more adversity than anyone ever has, to try to complete his career and he's booed in his last appearance in his home state. All I can say is Wow, really folks. Is that what you want to be known for ... a total lack of class? I guess so.
Sandersons inability to produce even an average 125 plays into it, I'm sure.
Ok, %when did these happen and was it against PSU++ wrestlers ? Since you seem to be one of their fans.
I boo’d every Iowa wrestler’s introduction and yelled “sucks” right after the announcer said each of their names at intros.
Had I seen Tom, Terry, Spencer, Woods, Warner or Cass after the match, I would have sheepishly asked for their autograph and claimed it was for my son.
Maybe that makes me disrespectful. I get it if you think it does. But to me, it was all in good fun and what the home crowd is supposed to do.
Had I seen Tom, Terry, Spencer, Woods, Warner or Cass after the match, I would have sheepishly asked for their autograph and claimed it was for my son.
Maybe that makes me disrespectful. I get it if you think it does. But to me, it was all in good fun and what the home crowd is supposed to do.
Stopped reading when you brought up race. Iowa has a rich history of non white wrestlers and athletes as a whole, but wouldn’t expect you to know that since PSU fans don’t actually know anything about wrestling. If you don’t believe me, there’s a father of a black wrestler on these forums. You can ask him if Iowa is racist. But go ahead and play victim and shout racist like a typical liberal
Never seen this behavior before in a wrestlers last match in an arena... Fun or not, it was a first and it was disdainful. Of course, I am but one opinion.
I don’t think you know who you’re talking to
He can be the Lord himself and it’s still a soft take and something he should be embarrassed of.
I’ve been to over 100 big college and pro sporting events. It’s customary for fans to boo the opposing teams lineup during introduction.
Sorry, I probably should not have mentioned the race part in that one example since I do not know for sure the motivation.
At a minimum, an Iowa fan threw a beer can at a PSU wrestler. Which is much more admirable.
Can you update the board on how Carvers standing ovations were for Zain, Nolf, or Bo? Kinda silly to think Carver would've given one of those guys a standing ovation. I wouldn't expect it in any way shape or form for those guys. Why would I give a 3 time national champ for an opposing team a standing ovation?
I dont understand what people don't understand about the booing Spencer.
he's the sports biggest star, wrestles for the 'enemy', jilted PSU for Iowa and is from PA.
it's sports. that's what people do.
Phillies fans are irrationally p*ssed off at Mike Trout for resigning with the Angels instead of coming back home.
Eagles fans booed Santa Claus.
And other than Gable, who has Carver 'respected' ? It's notorious for booing. Universally considered the harshest crowd to visitors and that's a badge y'all usually wear with pride.
he's the sports biggest star, wrestles for the 'enemy', jilted PSU for Iowa and is from PA.
it's sports. that's what people do.
Phillies fans are irrationally p*ssed off at Mike Trout for resigning with the Angels instead of coming back home.
Eagles fans booed Santa Claus.
And other than Gable, who has Carver 'respected' ? It's notorious for booing. Universally considered the harshest crowd to visitors and that's a badge y'all usually wear with pride.
Indeed. It’s disappointing but not surprising. Spencer intimidates the living hell out of Carl, Gilman, and PSU fans. He poses a threat to them all.
I think cheering an Olympic champion after the match is over in a dual that was easily won by the home team isn’t equivalent to booing the opposing team at introductions. I’m guessing booing at introductions happens at most places, and that probably includes Iowa. If that’s not consistent with your own personal values and actions, then I understand and accept your condemnation.
Spencer is a stud and everyone knows it. No one in the PSU room is intimidated by him. LOL!
This thread is so pathetic. Stop with the bitching and there being 1000 threads on Spencer. We’ve now pivoted from hyper analyzing his matches and every movement, to hyper analyzing the crowds reaction to his name being called? Really? I’m pretty sure Brady was booed in his return to Patriots stadium when he was running onto the field, and he won 6 super bowls for them.
This. If Gables match was the first match in a dual that was supposed to be tight he wouldn’t have received jack shit from our fans. But because he was the final match in a dual that the Hawks won it’s much easier to do what our fans did.
Looks like we have a board cop.🤦🏻♂️
PSU fans booed and heckled Spencer mercilessly when he lost to Austin in the state finals with mono and a torn ACL. They booed him in his final return to State College. There’s an obvious pattern here that’s worth acknowledging. I know PSU and its fans love to promote their squeaky clean facade and that the truth is sometimes hard to face, but I see nothing wrong with getting some truth out there.
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Wow really? How about you ask some of YOUR “black” wrestlers about their experience at your noble institution. Here’s a hint: I know those who did, not a good conversation. You people always have to put color to stuff. STOP. You’ve never nor will ever walk in our shoes, so to use it as a tag line to a “get back message” is disgusting. My son picked Iowa OVER PSU. Culture was the foremost driver to that. Yep, Iowa boos folks. Yep, there are idiots in every crowd, but I honestly would not want to be around Carver if ever they come after my kid. Wanna know why? Because the TRUE fans, the folks on THIS page would do the unimaginable to that poor bastard. They’ve defended my son on here and he has yet to step on the mats as a Hawkeye.
So please, just stop. There is already too much division because of race we don’t need idiots heaping more coals on this fire.
You guys are way too emotionally invested in Lee if you have a problem with him being booed. He’s one of the biggest prospects ever, he’s from PA, chose to go to Iowa over PSU, and it’s the biggest hyped dual of the year. Would I personally ever boo a college kid? No. But of course you’re going to have some disgruntled fans booing. It’s sports. Who cares. I was hoping he would get a standing ovation just so I could see the face on Gilman.
Like Willie said, if an Iowa high school kid choose PSU and was going to go down as one of the all-time greats I have a feeling we wouldn't be too friendly. Using this as some kind of moral victory over PSU is lame and I would expect that from their fan base if the roles were reversed. We are better than this. And Booing is fun. And the Gable standing O was because he was an Olympic champ and he was being pretty gracious on his farewell tour.
There is a dude in that room who legit uprooted his life and moved a thousand miles to get away from Spencer. That’s the definition of being intimidated.
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This past year for iowa football and wrestling I’ve never booed the other team. But don’t have a problem with people that do. I save the occasional boo birds for the refs in football or Iowa’s offensive coordinator.
Hey, look — more truth. Would love to hear what the PSU trolls have to say in response.
It's big boy wrestling. I am sure Spencer can handle it and it doesn't bother me one bit that they were booing him
Gable was caught on camera telling 5th year senior Sam Stoll after defeating him at the Big 10's, "get off my mat old man." Fans were not very happy with him but in his last appearance the Iowa fans acknowledged him appropriately. Nice job Iowa. As far as Smalls. I like his many contributions to our sport and like him personally, but he has been and will always be a PSU homer. He was at FLO and still is to this day. The Easton boy just can't look at PSU objectively. Never has and apparently never will....
Of course, the boos didn’t bother Spencer. That’s not the point.
Some of us are just a little tired of Iowa getting blasted on social media for no good reason. They were painted as the villain after the skirmish after the Iowa State meet last year, when Iowa State clearly provoked it. There was a thread at the top of this board for more than a week about a possible racial slur yelled at Austin Gomez in Carver last year, possibly by one idiot in a crowd of 15,000. These are just two examples. Of course, there are many more cases of Iowa getting slammed by Penn State trolls and other fools on social media without any basis. And Penn State fans are always among the first to pile on.
Here we have a factual case of disappointing behavior by Penn State fans, similar to the way they abused Spencer after his loss in the state finals, although not nearly as bad. That was an absolutely ugly scene. It’s nice to see some light shining on some truth about Penn State, but in this case, based on irrefutable facts. To be fair, we probably should keep this thread at the top of the board for at least the next week.
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Exactly. Iowa fans in general didn’t think very highly of Steveson based on his antics on and off the mat. That didn’t keep Iowa fans from giving him a standing ovation. We know how Penn State fans behaved towards Spencer. Neither Willie, nor anyone else, can say with certainty how Iowa fans would react in the opposite situation. I, for one, would have been standing and clapping, and I know many others who would have done the same.
Why are you pointing to Steveson as an example? It’s totally apples to oranges. CHA gave applause to Steveson for his Olympic accomplishment, not for being a 1x (soon to be 2x) NCAA champ.
If Spencer was an Olympic champ on Friday, I am confident the crowd’s reception would have been different. And the circumstances more comparable to Steveson’s. Can you see (and acknowledge) this?
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