15 Craziest College Football Fan Stories

It’s no secret that college football fans are some of the craziest out there.

From clever signs to face paint and tattoos, fans will go a long way to prove their loyalty. They will sprint across a football field for an autograph, or even during live game action. They will go to extraordinary lengths to prank their opposition and throw them off-kilter.

We’ve got pranks, superfans and old ladies doing keg stands—OK, just one old lady doing a keg stand. We even have a guy who named his son after Jim Tressel. But who is the craziest of them all?

It might be the guy whose College GameDay sign got him a date with a porn star. Let’s find out.

Johnny Pizza

LM Otero/Associated Press

I feel like football and pizza go together right? Almost as well as football and hot wings.

Anyway, in honor of Texas A&M’s 2013 Cotton Bowl appearance, a San Antonio pizza joint created this 62-inch behemoth.

That’s right, 62 inches of cheese and pepperoni splendor, all in honor of Johnny Football and the Aggies.

Field Invasion

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I’m not sure I’d want to run onto a football field in the middle of a play—for several reasons, not the least of which would be a concern for my own safety and general ability to continue breathing.

This Miami fan had no such concerns, as he just moseyed onto the field in the middle of a Florida State pass play when the two teams met in 2012.

Several questions arise here. I was under the impression it was challenging for fans to get anywhere near the playing field at any time—is it not?

Was this man not afraid for his general safety? Just how many drinks had he consumed? And finally, how is it possible that not only was the fan not harmed, but play went on as normal following this incident? 

Racing for Autographs

The folks in Alabama really love Nick Saban.

A stampede of Tide fans darted across Bryant-Denny Stadium to earn their chance at the coach’s autograph.

I’m not sure what the point of having them race across the field is—maybe just another Saban recruiting tactic?

Army, Navy and Bill the Goat

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Rivalry games always bring out the mischievous side of fans.

Army and Navy are no exception.

The two service academies have been coming up with new ways to swipe each other’s mascots for years—this is nothing new.

But in 2012, Joshua Stewart of Navy Times reported that one of Navy’s two Bills (either Bill XXXIII or Bill XXXIV) was kidnapped and left stranded, tied to a median on the side of the road.

Not to worry, the goat was OK, and Navy got the last laugh.

Ping-Pong Prank

Image Source/Jennifer Jolie/Associated Press

Speaking of Navy, the Midshipmen, too, have had some laughs at the expense of their Black Knight counterparts.

Kevin Cowherd of The Baltimore Sun reported that at one point, a Navy helicopter disrupted Army’s noon formation by dropping a whole mess of ping-pong balls onto the cadets.

Ridiculous Tattoos

There are too many examples of crazy fan tattoos to count, but this Bear Bryant monstrosity has to take the cake.

Kudos to Alabama fan Nathan Davis, though, for going all out. According to Lost Letterman, Davis’ body is chock-full of ‘Bama tattoos, he paints his face on game days, wears a houndstooth hat, the whole bit.

He truly is a dedicated superfan.

Stolen Badger Head

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

Mascot stealing is the thing to do, apparently, even if it’s just a random night in a college town.

In 2010, Bill Novak of The Capital Times reported that someone stole a $4,000, 28-pound Bucky Badger mascot head out of a college apartment in Madison, Wis.

Not to worry—the head was returned, which is a good thing since a headless mascot would probably scare some children.

.341 #Yolo

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In 2013, Black Heart Gold Pants reported that an extremely drunken Iowa fan attempted to gain access to the field during a game against Northern Illinois.

Said fan, Samantha Goudie, blew a .341 according to a police report, and apparently didn’t mind too much about her jail stay, tweeting, “Just went to jail #yolo.”

Yolo. Right.

The Phoenix 5

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If you can’t steal an axe, steal a tree.

Leading up to the Stanford-Berkeley game in 1998, Cal-Berkeley students known as “The Phoenix Five” stole a tree costume belonging to the Stanford marching band’s mascot.  

Apparently, the Berkeley student newspaper featured a photo of the tree wearing a blindfold on the front page, reported Lisa Trei of the Stanford Report at the time.

The Phoenix Five even went to so far as to write letters “from” the tree to Stanford indicating its desire to “see the outside world.”

Occupy Herbstreit

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This one is sort of crazy but more hilarious.

One college football fan (or fans) took his signs to Wall Street in 2011, in an effort dubbed, “Occupy Herbstreit.”

This fan went around to the protests on Wall Street and just photobombed everyone with creative signs (h/t Deadspin).

Some of the particularly clever gems included, “If the mainstream media won't cover us, maybe the Big 12 Network will,” and, “What do the economy and Texas football have in common? Both are underperforming at historic levels…”

Ageless Keg Stand

Here is one LSU fan proving that you’re never too old for a keg stand (h/t Next Impulse Sports).

That is all.

Young Tressel

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Rob Harvilla of Deadspin had a chance to interview his old high school buddy—a man who named his child “Tressel” after, you guessed it, Jim Tressel.

This happened before tattoo-gate at Ohio State, unfortunately for the high school buddy, one Andy Tomcho.

When asked if he would consider changing his son’s name after Tressel resigned, Tomcho said, “No name change. We'll just shorten it for a while to T or Tre.”

Lesson learned: Don’t name your child after anyone responsible for the recruitment of college athletes. You just never know.

The 'We Suck' Prank

Oh, those Yalies are smart.

In 2004, 20 clever Yale students impersonated the Harvard pep squad for the sake of an epic prank, reported Amanda Ruggeri of the Yale Daily News.

They wore Harvard T-shirts, painted their faces and handed out signs that would eventually spell out, “We Suck.”

The craziest part is...this actually worked.

Roll Tide Arrest

You know you’re a massive Alabama fan when…

...Your only response to getting arrested is, “Roll Tide.”

In 2013, Pittsburgh-area teacher Chris Chiappetta was arrested on charges of being high at school, according to Deadspin.

His comments to the media were interesting, to say the least.

Very Good Sign

Name a celebrity on a College GameDay sign, meet that celebrity. That’s how it works right?

For Oklahoma State fan Matt McGann it is.

McGann made a, uh, suggestive sign mentioning porn star and radio host Lisa Ann.

The two struck up a Twitter friendship after Ann heard about the sign, and she ended up taking him to the AVN Awards (apparently some type of porn awards show) as her date.

Not bad for a freshman.