Rusty Whitt With the Assist as a Fan Was Arrested During Texas Tech-Oklahoma Game
Late into the fourth quarter of Saturday's Texas Tech football game against Oklahoma, the game was briefly interrupted after a fan ran out onto the field.
The fan, later identified as James Colton Brown of Lubbock (pictured above), was immediately apprehended by a Texas Ranger and Rusty Whitt, Texas Tech Football Strength & Conditioning coach Rusty Whitt. Brown bonded out of jail after 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
Well, let me correct myself and say the fan was apprehended by Rusty Whitt, an Army veteran, and dragged off the field with an assist by the Texas Rangers.
You can see the photos 1340 The Fan's photographer Paul Roberts took of the incident below.
Fan Arrested on the Field at Jones AT&T Stadium
And there's (of course) video of the incident, too:
If you don't know who Rusty Whitt is or haven't seen him in person, a quick look at his Twitter account shows you he's not to be trifled with. When Whitt was hired in 2016 by head coach Kliff Kingsbury, he said: "I think Coach Whitt brought a great energy, accountability, intensity, and any time you have change I think it's good, and (the players) responded. Coach Whitt is a no-nonsense guy, he knows what he wants, he's going to hold people accountable, he's going to push them to the limit. So it's been a great fit."
Whitt interrupted his college football coaching career 15 years ago by joining the United States Army. According to Texas Tech, he served from Aug. 2003 to Jan. 2009, when he deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Whitt received a combat infantry badge, two Iraqi campaign medals and an Army commendation medal with valor.
Back to the fan who ran out onto the field: James Brown ran out onto the field at Jones AT&T Stadium immediately after Oklahoma took a 44-40 lead on defensive a two-point conversion. The commotion on the field lasted less than a minute, as Whitt grabbed Brown's hoodie and quickly handed him over to two Texas Rangers.
The Texas Rangers quickly took Brown out of the stadium via the home sideline, and the game resumed without much interruption.
As of early Sunday morning, the 22-year old Brown was charged with one count of Criminal Trespass and one count of Public Intoxication. The trespass charge is a Class B Misdemeanor and the P.I. is a Class C Misdemeanor. Some time after 3 a.m. Sunday morning, Brown was arraigned on the two charges and bail was set at $750 for the trespass charge, and $500 for the P.I. charge.
Brown's mugshot, taken by the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office, shows him no-worse-for-wear after Whitt's apprehension of him.
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