KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Vols fans spent Saturday night celebrating the University of Tennessee’s first football victory over the University of Alabama since 2006, but part of that celebration ended up being quite costly for Neyland Stadium.
As soon as the Tennessee-Alabama game ended with a last minute 40-yard field goal — bringing the final score to 52-49 — fans from the sold-out stands flooded the field, for which the SEC can fine up to $250,000 according to ESPN.
After that, staff from News 2’s sister station, WATE, recorded footage of fans tearing down the goalposts in Neyland Stadium. Then, fans carried the goalposts through the streets before throwing them into the Tennessee River, as seen in videos on Twitter.
Following the excitement from the Vols’ victory over Alabama, Tennessee Football posted the following tweet on Sunday, Oct. 16:
Y’all remember how we tore the goalposts down, hauled em out of Neyland and dumped em in the Tennessee River?
Yeah that was awesome.
Anywho, turns out that in order to play next week’s game, we need goalposts on our field. Could y’all help us out?
At the end of the tweet, the university included a link to a fundraising page, which said philanthropic annual gifts made to the My All Campaign would go towards the purchase of new goalposts
The donation page was tweeted at 2:19 p.m. on Sunday, but as of 4:19 p.m., the fund for that new goalposts has already received $32,055, with is about 21% of its goal.