University of Utah police investigating incident involving topless women at home-opener
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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Gephardt Daily) — Seeing 73 points on the scoreboard for the Utes wasn’t the most shocking sight Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium for some University of Utah football fans.
Police are investigating reports that two women attended Utah’s dominating 73-7 victory over Southern Utah wearing only body paint on their torsos, according to a news release from the university.
An officer asked them to put on their shirts, and “they complied with the request,” the release states.
University police are looking into possible criminal charges against the two fans. If the women involved are students, they will be referred to the university’s dean of students for potential discipline, university officials said.
University of Utah President Taylor Randall and Athletics Director Mark Harlan recently sent a letter to all Utah football ticket holders about appropriate fan behavior at home games.
“We want to be very clear that profanity, public intoxication, rude and disrespectful behavior, racial and derogatory comments or verbal attacks directed at individuals or groups will not be tolerated,” the joint statement reads.
“Anyone who engages in unsafe or inappropriate conduct will be removed from the premises, may lose all privileges and access for future university events and could be reported to law enforcement,” the letter continues. “We encourage all of you to help us identify and call-out inappropriate behavior so that our event staff can ensure a safe and great experience for our student-athletes, coaches, staff and spectators. If you see something, say something!”
Utes fan and YouTuber Melea Johnson did just that in an Instagram post Sunday describing her family’s encounter with two topless women who had painted white tank tops with a red “U” on their torsos.
“No one working the stadium stopped them at the gate,” Johnson writes, adding that “security guards just stared and let them walk by.”
“Instead of this post being about how excited I was to take my kids to their very first game … I now feel like I have to post about this issue to try to create some noise and get the stadium to change their rules,” the post states.
Johnson says stadium security told her they couldn’t escort the women out of the stadium “because they’re worried they’ll get sued.”
“Are you kidding me?! This is NOT ok @utahfootball!!”
Johnson said it was the first time she’d taken her two children to a Utes football game.
On the field, the Utes (1-1) scored the most points a University of Utah football team has put up since 1973. Utah finished with 599 yards on offense (247 rushing and 352 passing) in its home-opener, while limiting SUU to just 85 total yards (43 rushing and 42 passing).