Some students in line for Thursday night's football game against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill experienced chaos, and some were turned away from entering Wallace Wade Stadium when the arena reached capacity.
Minutes before the game started, a large group of students were still standing in line at the student entrance to Wallace Wade. Event officials instructed some people to move into a second line, parallel to the Finch-Yeager Building. As officials intermittently let people in through the gates, people in line rushed forward to form a tightly-packed pit.
"It didn't feel like the line was moving forward at all—instead, we were shoved left and right in a huge mass," senior Sheetal Hegde wrote in an email Thursday night.
Some students took to social media to report injuries in the process, though as of 10:15 p.m. Thursday evening, Duke officials had received no reports of injury.
"At this time, we have received no reports from EMS or the police of injuries at the student entrance or elsewhere," Jon Jackson, senior associate athletics director for external affairs, wrote in an email Thursday night. "In order to maintain safety, several students were diverted to general access gates throughout the stadium."
Students in the center of the crowd report that they were unable to move in any direction. A foldable table was also hoisted above the crowd. Officials let people in little by little, stopping and starting the crowd's movement. Some students jumped over the barricades to avoid being pushed by the downhill-moving masses.
Sophomore Katie Becker, a columnist for The Chronicle, said she had an already-broken foot that someone stepped on before pushing her up against a fence, over which an EMT forcibly lifted her.
"It was one of the worst experiences I've had at Duke," Becker said in a Facebook message. "I should never have to worry about my physical safety at a Duke-sponsored sporting event. There was literally no one in control."
Sophomore Courtney Crump said she would not have been able to stand up if she had been pushed down, noting that she has cerebral palsy, and called the incident "a living nightmare."
"A huge group of people pushing me forward into a crowd is my biggest fear [and] I had a panic attack in the middle of the mob," Crump said in a Facebook message Thursday night. "[My friends] fought to get me out and other students easily found a way for me to get by."
After order had been restored at the gates, some students were turned away from entering the game. The student section was filled to capacity before the end of the game's first quarter and many spectators were already standing in the aisles between the bleachers.
"Once their section was full, students were asked to fill in other open areas of the stadium, specifically in sections 14, 15 and 32," Jackson said. "When the stadium reached capacity, a reported 50 [to] 60 students were turned away."
Sophomore Brian Benesch saw the mob from afar shortly after 7:30 p.m. and was told upon approaching that he and others should attempt to get into the stadium from the general entrance. Once there, he said staff members were working to get people with tickets in first and that he should "get out of the way."
"No one wanted to address the problem of the students getting into the game," he said.
Benesch waited until after the first quarter to see if he could get in once some students left. Although he did see people leaving and returned to the student gates to ask a staff member what was happening, he said he was told that he would not be let in.
Junior Safa Kaleem arrived at halftime so that she could study for a midterm and saw hundreds of people leaving. The event staff told her that their supervisors were not allowing any students in unless they had a re-entry stamp.
"It was kind of an unfair process," Kaleem said. "I totally understand that they were trying to keep it safe because they said it was over capacity. [But] there were so many people leaving that it just didn't seem rational."
Several students reported that they purchased tickets as the only remaining means of entry, which cost between $15 and $20.
Carleigh Stiehm contributed reporting.
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