Northwestern expands peanut-free stadium idea to first three games of 2014
Northwestern's peanut-free game against Minnesota was such a success that the idea will be repeated in 2014.
Three times, in fact.
The school announced Thursday that the first three home games of the year would be peanut free. That means no peanuts will be sold in the stadium and no peanuts will be able to be brought in. It's to help give those with severe peanut allergies an opportunity to attend a football game.
"The response to Peanut-Free Day at Ryan Field last season was overwhelming," Northwestern deputy athletic director Mike Polisky said in a release. "We learned of so many families that were able to experience Big Ten football for the first time on that Saturday. This year we're excited to be able to offer tens of thousands of Chicagoland families perhaps their first opportunity to experience college athletics at the highest level across a number of our programs."
According to statistics provided by the school, one in every 13 children has a peanut allergy. With the promotion in October of last year, Northwestern said it was the first college football stadium to go peanut free. The idea is also being expanded to 10 men's basketball games, six women's basketball games, three wrestling matches and all home volleyball games.
Teams in other sports have done similar promotions and have peanut-free sections at stadiums, and the popularity of peanuts at football games makes a peanut ban easier than at a baseball game. No one stands up in the middle of a football game to sing a song with the word "peanuts" in it (or in basketball, wrestling or volleyball.)
The peanut-free football games are against Cal, Northern Illinois and Western Illinois.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
