Food Delivery Guy Interrupts College Basketball Game

My alma mater, Duquesne University, doesn't often make national headlines. It's a smaller school located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At one time, the Dukes were pretty good in basketball. They actually won a national title. In 1955. The last time the Dukes were in the NCAA Tournament was 1977. But they're all over the national media this week.

ESPN reports that during Wednesday's (1/25) college basketball match-up between Loyola Chicago and Duquesne at Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, a man carrying a bag of food casually walked onto the court right in the middle of the game. In fact, he got very close to one of the Loyola Chicago players. One of the referees noticed the guy, waved him off, and allowed play to continue.

In the video below, it takes a second for the announcers to notice the delivery guy but they soon determine that he's carrying a bag of burgers from McDonald's with an Uber Eats sticker on it. So who's getting the delivery? It does look like the ref is telling the guy, "Give it to me later! Not now!!!" However, Abby Schnable, who was covering the game for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, tweeted, "Ref came by an said that it was a first for him. Also the guy who was supposed to get the food is on the video board. He got his MCDs."

I have my doubts about the whole thing. Something tells me the "delivery guy" is actually a student pulling a prank. No one could be so clueless as to wander onto the court in the middle of college basketball game, could they? And who gets food delivered to an arena? If it is a prank, it's one for the ages, especially since it got my beloved Dukes on national TV.

By the way, Duquesne won that night, 72-58. The superstitious sports fan in me thinks this on-court food delivery thing should become a tradition at the Dukes' home games. It could actually work as a fun marketing gimmick, just as long as no one gets hurt and the game isn't affected. Someone get McDonald's on the phone!

UPDATE: CBS Sports confirmed my suspicions. First, it turns out the alleged "delivery guy" was representing DoorDash, not Uber Eats. Second, and more significantly, he was wearing a microphone. The entire incident was a social media stunt. Austin Hansen, an assistant Athletic Director from Loyola Chicago, exposed the ruse in a Twitter thread.

It's something every athlete (and fan!) dreams about. Winning a championship and hoisting (or watching your favorite player hoist) that trophy. But sometimes that picture-perfect moment goes awry. If you watched the Stanley Cup finals this year you may have seen the Colorado Avalanche's Nicolas Aube-Kubel drop the Stanley Cup. But did you know that there have been several championship trophies that have been dropped or damaged during celebrations?

After watching the drama unfold this past year BonusFinder complied a list of the championship trophies that had to be sent off for repairs. Oddly most were actually from soccer teams across the globe. I'm not a soccer fan but they must have some huge celebrations after victories.

One odd story, not included on this list involves the 1966 FIFA World Cup Trophy. It was stolen and miraculously found by a dog named Pickles. Many damaged trophies are dropped especially in the traditional victory parades. One even caught on fire thanks to pyrotechnics. Another was smashed just like a rocker might do a guitar. We also can't forget the fans because throwing a beer and damaging the Commissioners Trophy is kind of legendary. And considering that Red Sox fan had never seen a World Series win, well I forgive them.

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Sport: Soccer (England)

Trophy Price: $1,228,395.00

Sport: NASCAR

Trophy Price: $25,000.00

Sport: Hockey

Trophy Price: $23,000.00

Sport: Baseball

Trophy Price: $19,000.00

Sport: Soccer (Netherlands)

Trophy Price: N/A

Sport: Soccer (Brazil)

Trophy Price: N/A

Sport: Soccer (Spain)

Trophy Price: N/A