I was there, and was a sophomore in the Sylvan residential area of campus. Across campus are the Southwest towers, 4 or 5 twenty plus floor dormitories along with a whole bunch of low rises. It is a densely packed area of college wildness, alcohol, drugs and hormones. It is party central, or was, when I was attending UMASS,Amherst way back in the 80s. I never lived there. I chose the more out-of-the-way residential area like Sylvan and Orchard Hill.
It was game six of the World Series and the Red Sox are playing the N.Y. Mets and I was sitting with my fellow suitemates, one of whom was a NY Mets fan, watching the game and biting my fingernails. The BOSOX are ahead and the last out of the last inning is coming. The Mets are up at bat. Mookie Wilson hits and easy slow bouncer down the first base line toward the first baseman (Anyone want to guess who that was?)....Bill Buckner. The ball goes right between his legs and out of reach. Two Mets cross home plate. The Mets were one out from being dogs, but one error gave them the victory. The series went on to game 7, and the Red Sox would loose.
When Buckner made his "eternal" error, you could feel a tremor go through the entire campus. It was a shock to be THAT close and see it slip away.
Down in the southwest towers, students spilled out into the outside. Although what happened next is sketchy, as I heard it some Mets fans proceeded to rub our noses in it. The intensity and numbers of students involved escalated. The result was a full blown riot, that according to some, had a definite racial component to it. Some called it a beer brawl that got wildly out of control. Whatever they chose to call it, the incident received national attention in the media about racism on campus. UMASS, Amherst at the time had rated as among the best bargain university educations you could get for the money. Now it was infamous for a race riot as opposed to the education it offered.
I willing to bet there are a few working on that campus who remember what happened that night. Looks like this happened in the Southwest residential area as well, only for the opposite reason this time.
I do remember the admin clamped down on Southwest when a student was killed "elevator surfing". Somehow the student was able to get on top of the elevator in one of the Southwest high rises (25 floors I think) and rode it up and down. Until they lost their balance and fell many stories to their death.
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