‘To the river’: Vanderbilt fans detail chaotic celebration and goalpost trek after Alabama upset

It sank. Of course it did.

It was a several-hundred-pound goalpost heaved into the Cumberland River, but any of the students who marched down Broadway could be forgiven for thinking it might float. That’s because a few described something like magic in the air that night.

The goalpost, however, wasn’t as buoyant as the raucous Vanderbilt crowd, which stormed the field at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., last Saturday after a college football upset for the ages. The unranked Commodores closed out a 40-35 win over then-No. 1 Alabama to mark Vandy’s first-ever victory over an Associated Press top-five team. Bedlam, understandably, ensued.

“It was basically chaos,” said Dean Parentis, a senior at Vanderbilt who attended the game.

Another senior Vanderbilt student in the crowd, Robbie Tylman, called the postgame atmosphere “insanity.”

Parentis and Tylman were among the swarm of fans on the field when the contest ended — a stunt that led the SEC to fine the school $100,000. They were also among the roughly 50 people, by Tylman’s estimate, who helped carry the goalpost from the field at FirstBank on a 2.5-mile trek to the river after a handful of fans tore it down.

“You had students going up to players trying to dab ‘em up and give ‘em high-fives,” Parentis said about the on-field celebrations. “You had a rush in the middle of the field trying to see the coach and trying to get pictures. Then slowly everyone started fanning out toward the goalpost on the far side.”

Almost instinctively, the crowd moved toward that set of uprights, shook it down and carried it toward Broadway and the river beyond, as police attempted to corral the throng and traffic in the lively downtown area. Tylman, who said he had his hand on the post for about half the journey and ran beside it in a “sea of a thousand people,” immediately knew its destination. Parentis, who said he helped carry the goalpost out of the stadium and onto the street, heard chants in the tunnel: “To the river!”

For about an hour, the group marched and cheered, maneuvering the 30-foot-tall, roughly 20-foot-wide post that weighs several hundred pounds, over and around stopped cars while high-fiving drivers. One fan with a speaker even stood atop the goalpost waving a flag, Tylman said.

“It was probably the sweatiest and most disgusting group of people carrying it,” Parentis said. But he called the experience “a blast.”

When they finally arrived at the landing spot, the group unloaded the weight. Sure enough, Tylman recalled, when the goalpost hit the water, “It sank!” Police were swift to disperse the crowd after that, but for the fans who made the journey, it marked a victorious end to an unforgettable night.

Much of the excitement stemmed from the unexpected nature of the win. Vanderbilt, which started this year 2-2 after finishing last season 2-10, was a 22.5-point underdog heading into the game. Alabama had only lost three times as a top-ranked team to an unranked opponent before Saturday.

Tylman noted most of the fans in attendance were there for Alabama.

“The vibe was very much like, ‘Yeah, it will be fun to watch Vanderbilt lose,’” he said.

“I think one of my friends made a joke like, ‘How funny would it be if they won?’” Tylman continued.

Then in the contest, Vanderbilt never trailed. An early touchdown by Sedrick Alexander was followed by a Randon Fontenette pick-six in the first quarter. That gave Vandy fans early hope. Quarterback Diego Pavia continued to deliver, throwing for 252 yards and two touchdowns, and the Commodores closed out a historic win, beating Bama for the first time in 40 years and handing the Crimson Tide their first loss of the season.

The loss sent Alabama (4-1) to No. 7 in the rankings as other schools ascended after the weekend full of upsets. Vanderbilt (3-2) remains unranked but received 26 votes in the latest AP poll. They travel to play Kentucky (3-2) on Saturday night. But even if the Commodores don’t win another game this season, Parentis said he wouldn’t care. The highlight already happened.

“We beat Bama. We beat the No. 1 team in the country,” he said. “That’s still good enough for me, but I would love to see us still smack around some other teams. It’s a win-win at this point.”

As for the goalpost, the Nashville Fire Department retrieved pieces from the river and returned them to Vanderbilt. The school is now auctioning off the pieces along with other game paraphernalia. Six and eight-inch goalpost pieces have sold for $4,035 while a four-inch piece sold for $1,005.

Although Parentis didn’t depart Saturday with the goalpost, he said the memories from the mayhem would stick.

“The number one thing we were saying as we were walking the goalpost down was, ‘There is never going to be a point in college better than this,’” he said.

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(Photo: Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA Today via Imagn Images)