University of Evansville - LinC Yearbook (Evansville, IN)

Page 11 text:

Johnson, or hinder the proceedings in any way. Still, Gwaltney said fans yelled at him, Get that camera out of here, or Get that camera down, or Who is that cam- eraman for, Detroit? Later that night, Gwaltney stopped at a 24-hour restaurant. Kenny Perry, UE ' s sophomore center and a close friend of Richie Johnson ' s, also was there. Perry asked Gwaltney to join him. Perry told me it was all right to have taken the pictures, Gwaltney said. He told me everyone else was nuts. He said the players realize I was just doing my job. That made me feel a little better. UE fans also received criticism for leaving the game long before its conclu- sion. A mass exodus began when UE trailed by 10 pomts with about four minutes to play. By the time UE closed to within two points with four seconds left, about half of the original crowd of 10,696 had de- parted. Cheerleaders Johnson and Rumsey were particularly upset. When I looked up into the stands and saw them half-empty, 1 said to myself, ' 1 don ' t believe this, ' said Rumsey. It ' s just unreal. People here want their team to be ranked m the top SO, but they don ' t want to support the team. Said Tom Johnson . . . They support the team when it wms. But when it loses, they just take off The cheerleaders said it ' s not uncom- mon for people — especially those m the first rows — to tell them to stop cheermg. They tell us to sit down and get out of the way, said Johnson. Johnson and Rumsey said UE has too many middle-aged and elderly fans who don ' t want to participate in the cheers. It seems like they ' d have more fun staying home and watchmg the game on TV, said Rumsey, because they don ' t want to participate. He thinks UE ' s cheerleaders do a good job of trying to inspire the crowd. We ' re trying a lot of different things. But it ' s discouraging when we try new things and no one seems to care. I think most Aces fans do care. Some of them just show it in a funny way. 7