The recent University of Miami-Appalachian State University game had some heart-stopping moments that didn’t involve anything happening on the field.
Some fans who attended the game on Saturday were treated to front-row seats to an amazing save that happened when a cat somehow got into the stadium and ended up dangling by a paw from the upper deck.
It’s unclear who the cat belongs to — if it belongs to anyone — or how it got into the stadium, but many people have shared clips of the incident that show the tense moments leading up to the drop.
“The cat was up there for like 20, 25 minutes, and it wasn’t really moving,” one attendee, Dylan Marinov, told WSVN-TV. “I wasn’t recording in the beginning, because nothing was really happening, but then it started moving a lot, so then I thought, ‘What if it falls?’
“So then I started recording, and after a few minutes, it ended up losing its balance and ended up falling.”
Season ticket holders Craig and Kimberly Cromer were sitting below the suspended feline.
“They were trying to grab it from above, and they couldn’t reach it, but they were scaring it downward,” Craig, a facilities manager at the University of Miami, told WTVJ-TV.
“It hung there for a little while with its two front paws, then one paw, then I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s coming soon.'”
But the Cromers had something other than their position on their side.
“My wife takes the U.S. flag with us to all of our football games, and we normally ZIP-tie it to the handrail, and so we snatched it off the handrail and used it to break the cat’s fall,” Craig explained to WSVN.
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Video shows the fans screaming as the cat wiggles to the edge, dangles by a paw and eventually drops to the seats below — where its fall is broken by the Cromers’ flag.
It appears to then tumble from the fabric before being scooped up by the people sitting below the Cromers.
The cat didn’t look particularly happy about the whole scenario, especially when one of the catchers hoisted it aloft. It was very obviously biting and clawing at its captors, but it was alive.
Well this may be the craziest thing I’ve seen at a college football game #HardRockCat pic.twitter.com/qfQgma23Xm
— Hollywood (@DannyWQAM) September 11, 2021
“It was good to save the cat,” Craig said. “The students were obviously very passionate about it, and you could tell that because, after the cat fell, they were quick to snatch it up. They didn’t care that they got bitten or scratched or anything.”
Apparently, the couple were sprayed by the cat and lost a drink in the commotion. It’s certainly a game they won’t forget any time soon.
“Strangest thing that’s ever happened at a game,” Kimberly said to WTVJ.
The cat was reportedly taken home by someone, but people are trying to figure out more to make sure it gets home, or gets a home, through the proper channels.
“I don’t know anything about that or what was going on,” Miami coach Manny Diaz later said.
“But I’ll tell you, if the cat will help us in our red-zone offense, I’m going to see if we can give it a scholarship.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
