My brother enrolled at UCLA while I was still in high school,
giving me the privilege of using a bootlegged BruinCard to sneak
into the student section at UCLA sporting events. At one particular
game during the brief Baron Davis era, I sat in the student section
and was nearly assaulted.
I was sitting on my bum, and that was a big no-no.
In my opinion, it still is.
So at last Thursday’s men’s basketball game against
Washington State, you can imagine the confusion and skewed sense of
déjà vu I experienced when I was again assaulted. Only
this time, I wasn’t sitting.
In fact, I was the only one standing in the area to the left of
the band, still the student section.
When I was asked to sit down, and I politely refused, popcorn,
paper and obscenities were hurled my way.
Eventually, one of the yellow-clad ushers came and told me I had
to sit down.
“Why?” I asked.
He left without responding, only to return moments later with a
big blue usher. I knew this thing was getting serious because the
big blue usher isn’t just an usher ““ he is an usher
with a headset. At his request, I went to chat with him, much to
the enjoyment of the supposed fans sitting behind me.
“You can either sit down or you can leave,” the big
blue usher said.
So I decided to try to negotiate with him.
“How about I stand and stay? That’s my final
offer,” I said.
While I was explaining to the big blue usher that I have as much
right to stand as to sit, he got frustrated and threatened to
report me to student affairs.
So now I’m thinking to myself, “This is great,
I’m going to get expelled for standing at a basketball game.
My parents will be so proud.”
Before long I was talking to a UCLA official about my alleged
misconduct.
Soon, another UCLA student, in a courageous show of solidarity,
took a stand ““ literally. Jason Gaulton, a second year
philosophy student, got out of his seat to cheer like any Bruin fan
should. Directly to his right, the band stood and played during a
time-out.
“What are you doing, trying to make a statement?”
one heckler yelled at Gaulton.
“If I were trying to make a statement, I would be holding
a sign that says “˜Give peace a chance,'” he shot
back.
Before long, the yellow usher came and asked Gaulton to sit.
“As soon as you ask the band to sit down, I will be happy
to sit,” Gaulton said mockingly. “They’re
blocking my view.”
Seconds later, the big blue usher came and whisked Gaulton up to
the walkway, where the two of us tried in vain to convince the
usher and the school official that we weren’t criminals.
“Fine, I’ll just call the cops,” the school
official said.
About five minutes later, the strong arm of the law ““ in
this case the UCLA traffic police ““ came sauntering up the
walkway.
They took us outside, where we were split up into pairs. Jason
was with the bad cop while I was paired with the good cop.
Gaulton’s cop was giving him quite a hard time. It was a
stand-off.
“You can say whatever you want, but I’m not going to
listen,” the mean cop said. “I’m just not going
to listen to you.”
“Then I guess I’m not going to talk,” Jason
replied.
“OK, so tell me what happened,” the mean cop
said.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to
listen,” Jason replied.
At one point, I interrupted the nice cop and asked, “So
what exactly is the charge here, sir? Would it be illegally
standing in the student section?”
That must have been it. Jason and I were never let back in.
After extensive questioning, Jason Gaulton and I became the first
students (to my knowledge) ever ejected from a UCLA basketball game
for standing up.
I hear we won the game by about 15. Although it was pretty cool
to get questioned by the police, I sure would have liked to see the
end of that game.
Think I can get a refund?
The absurdity of the situation garnered a front-page article in
The L.A. Times Sports section. The stage was set for a massive call
to arms.
We organized a stand-in for Saturday night’s game against
Washington. Each Bruin fan wore a white T-shirt with an
anti-sitting or a pro-standing slogan.
I promised my grandmother I would not get arrested.
“Oh, that’s OK, honey. I’ll bail you
out,” she replied.
Numerous Bruins came through wearing shirts with slogans like
“Too Legit to Sit,” “I’m Standing With
Stupid,” “My Chair is Broken,” and “Stand
by Me.”
It worked. With their team trailing by as much as 15 at one
point, thousands of Bruins were inspired to stand and cheer their
team on to an 83-72 comeback victory.
With the win, UCLA has secured the final spot in the upcoming
Pac-10 Conference tournament.
Bring on Arizona. We can hardly stand the wait.
Kudos to Dan Guerrero for creating more student seating where we
can stand. E-mail Karon at: ekaron@media.ucla.edu.