Near-empty bleachers loomed over McBride Court as the Fords took on Germantown Academy in a Friday night game on February 7. Just ten hours earlier, Dean of Students Mr. Luqman Kolade, Director of Athletics Mr. Michael Murphy, and Head of the Upper School Mr. Mark Fifer informed the student body that the game would be played without a student fan section.
“The section is what makes Friday night games so special,” Sixth Form basketball player Gabe Baker said. “We definitely missed our guys.”
The decision to restrict fan attendance came after February 4th’s away game against Malvern Prep. Tensions between Fords and Friars were particularly high since a loss in football in October. “There was an interaction between large groups of both student bodies in the parking lot, and there was some profanity used, there was some provocative behavior,” Mr. Fifer said.
In response, Haverford and Malvern administrators and student leaders came together before Malvern’s trip to Haverford for a January 14th game.
Many students found that Malvern fans’ behavior—and administrative response—after the Friars’ win disregarded established protocols. “Malvern stormed out on court… as they rained down the same insults,” Sixth Former Eddie Grant said. “[They] faced no punishment.”
However, students are not privy to all administrative actions; Mr. Fifer shared that Malvern did discipline members of its student body after the game on the 14th.
Nonetheless, a perception of injustice permeated the Haverford community, and February 4th’s game felt uniquely important to Haverford fans.
“No faculty member could understand how intense the Haverford-Malvern rivalry has gotten in the past year,” Grant said.
In preparation for a heated night, administrators set expectations for Fords fans. “We had some conversations with students about our expectations for them going into that game,” Mr. Fifer said. “We didn’t want them showing up in a provocative theme, we didn’t want them congregating before the game, we didn’t want them to rush the court if we ended up winning, and we didn’t want them congregating after the game given some of the problems at the football game earlier in the year.”
Mr. Fifer explained that the particular focus on large groups arises from studies into crowd mentality. “Crowd behavior is that people do feel more anonymous and don’t feel as accountable,” he said.
An email to the upper school student body from Mr. Murphy on the afternoon of the 4th reiterated expectations, which another email had noted on January 31 in preparation for a home game against Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. “Reminder, that just as we have communicated about our home contests, there is to be no pre or post game gathering and entering or leaving venues en masse,” Mr. Murphy’s email read.
But, according to Mr. Fifer, post-game behavior did not meet the administration’s expectations.
“After the game, groups of students went out in the parking lot, they congregated in one place, and there was some profanity used,” he said. “It was just generally out-of-control behavior that was problematic for us and was a through-line-pattern behavior from what happened in the fall at the football game.”
“This is not the Linc, this is a school, and as such expectations for conduct are different.”
Mr. Mark Fifer
In response to that behavior, the administration chose to prohibit student attendance at all sporting events on February 7—a home basketball game, a hockey game, and a winter track meet —a consequence that has not been levied in recent years.
“On its face, the behavior would have been problematic,” Mr. Fifer said. “Contextualized with some of the previous behavior, it escalates some of the concern.”
The administration sees current behavior as a new issue partially arising from professional sports fans. “Sometimes there’s a model that exists externally, in culture…how people behave at [Lincoln Financial Field],” Mr. Fifer said. “This is not the Linc, this is a school, and as such expectations for conduct are different.”
Mr. Kolade, Mr. Murphy, and Mr. Fifer each communicated the administration’s concerns to students at an upper school assembly. Each touched on a different theme, including the expectations of a school environment, safety, and consistency in standards amidst some students’ perception of the school having “gone soft.”
Reacting to the remarks, some students believe that the administration’s expectations and responses have not been uniform.
“The most infuriating and upsetting part about the assembly and the response to the Malvern basketball game is the inconsistency,” Sixth Former Finn Tierney said.
Tierney’s comment indicates a clear disconnect between administrators and students.
“Our standards and expectations really haven’t changed,” Mr. Fifer said. “What has changed is the behavior…large groups who are engaging in…profanity, being provocative, instigating—that’s the behavior that is new to us and that is most concerning to us.”
“It’s not a matter of the school changing its values,” Mr. Kolade added. “This is actually new behavior.”
Tierney, however, sees no such consistency.
“There doesn’t seem to be a set of rules that are clear for fan behavior, and no matter what the student section does it seems like there will be a punishment,” Tierney said. “Last year, blatant disregard for the rules led to just seniors being banned at a game. This year when we followed all guidelines set for us, we still ended up banned.”
Mr. Kolade disagrees. “I don’t think that the response was so out of line,” he said. “The difference between [the incident at a basketball game against Penn Charter last year] and this is that the kids understood what was wrong at the Penn Charter game, but here they didn’t see the problem with them hanging out and celebrating this win all together.”
“It is not the administration going soft, but rather the school has not adjusted to the heat of the rivalry as well as Malvern’s administration.”
Eddie Grant ’25
Mr. Kolade has spoken to some students who understand the administration’s actions. “I did hear a couple of students who actually like what Mr. Fifer said about how he’s not going to let the standards at another school dictate our standards,” Mr. Kolade said.
Grant disagrees. “We can hold ourselves to a higher standard and that’s great, but this was not the time to enforce that,” he said.
Student Body President Josh Williams, whose position acts as a conduit between students and administrators, explained that administrators made clear that they were prepared for trouble—and subsequent consequences—surrounding the Malvern game.
“Before the Malvern game, Mr. Fifer and Mr. Kolade both came to me,” Williams said. “Afterward, Mr. Fifer came to me about it…I knew that [a consequence] was coming, so it wasn’t a shock.”
Regardless, many students are upset.
Grant believes that the administration should adapt to developing situations.
“It is not the administration going soft, but rather the school has not adjusted to the heat of the rivalry as well as Malvern’s administration,” Grant said.
Students seem to await a shift in administrative approaches, while the administration expects conduct compliant with current guidelines. Both groups recognize a need for stronger preparation ahead of future events.
“We have to come to a decision about how we want games to be going forward,” Williams said.
Mr. Fifer moves forward recognizing students’ dissatisfaction with expectations and consequences while affirming his commitment to school values.
“[The future plan is] ongoing dialogues with students,” he said. “There’s also going to be some conversations with other schools to try to establish some shared expectations for student conduct so that there’s some coherence and consistency across the board for expectations for fan conduct at athletic contests. I think that there will be some direct conversation and dialogue with Malvern Prep…on how the schools can partner to have some shared expectations for student conduct.”
Williams believes that, beyond dialogue, direct action can be taken to prevent problematic behavior from students across the Inter-Ac league.
“We should be more proactive on how we defend our place, and we should also be more proactive on how the student body should handle our own behavior,” Williams said. “Malvern had security at their game to hold the students back, and we don’t really do anything like that, we don’t ever hold a team back from disrespecting our school, like other schools do for us, and I think we had talks about implementing that.”
