When I think of poor sportsmanship, my thoughts are of fighting hockey players, soccer red cards, John McEnroe, and the picture I shot following a Rothsay, Minn., football playoff game 20 years ago. Do you remember the phrase, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt me?” Well, they do!

With brutal November temperatures and light snow blowing across the field in a small north-central Minnesota town, I watched as two teams battled out the football playoff game to a tie. I was working as the staff photographer at The Daily Journal in Fergus Falls at the time, shooting black and white film. I don’t recall many details about the game, only what happened afterward.

To end the tie, both teams were given a set of downs near the goal line. After two rounds of this, both teams had scored and the game was still tied. But, during the third round, Rothsay had the ball second, and needed to score. They opted to pass on fourth down, and the player in the photo dropped the ball right in front of me.

The other team’s fans went ballistic. They had been huddling together, lining the end zone, screaming at the players. There were no security or police that I recall. The game ended dramatically, and the football was thrown back to the referee, who set it down on the field. The winning team ran toward the 50 yard line to celebrate, and the Rothsay players were dejected.

The receiver that dropped the ball, lay face down in the endzone for a minute. As I held my finger down on the shutter button, motordrive blazing, I noticed men taunting him. I don’t remember what was said, but it didn’t matter. Rather than celebrating with their team, these men were heckling a player. What were they thinking, or were they at all? This was only part of the post-game activity I photographed, and headed back to the paper to process my film.

After discussion with the paper’s editor, we decided to run the photo six columns across the top of the front page. This was a big upset for Rothsay, and the photo showed both the thrill of victory, and agony of defeat. But what we didn’t anticipate fully, was the emotional reaction from the Rothsay readers. I hadn’t only captured the winning and losing reactions, but a moment of disgusting sportsmanship that couldn’t be taken back.

Many, many calls came in after the paper was published. Some readers cancelled their subscriptions, and others wrote letters to the editor. But who were they upset with? As a photojournalist, my job was to record the events as they unfolded. Would it have been easy to ignore what I saw, and shoot something else? Yes. But, would that have reflected the reality of what happened?

After a week or so, the principal of the school made contact with our editor to let her know the men in the photo were contacted, and were writing a letter of apology to the player. They were not only out of line, but had been captured on film, showing the public a disgusting and embarrassing moment for them.

After I had heard about the apology, I felt a little better. I had been criticized by Rothsay residents for taking the photo. Sometimes that comes with the job.

Did the community learn something about sportsmanship from this episode? I hope so. That’s why I’m sharing this with you. Remember, the actions you take in front of your children, at the games, effect others as well. There were no “sticks and stones” thrown at this player and his team, but the silent words implied by the action of the men in this photograph, hurt them.

Tags: bob hammerstrom, conduct, Fans, Football, game, Minnesota, playoff, Rothsay, Sportsmanship, unsportsmanlike