Sugar Bowl: Video of Alabama fan going airborne vs. OU fans goes viral

The video is now infamous.

What starts as a seemingly normal back-and-forth between fan bases at the Sugar Bowl erupted into the viral video of the new year. All it took was about 32 seconds and an Alabama fan, identified by yellowhammernews.com as Michelle Pritchett of Sweet Water, Ala., went from irate to airborne.

“I didn't expect to see an Alabama woman flying through the stands,” said Scott Ward, a 27-year-old Noble resident who was seated a few feet from the fracas. “I've been on the Texas side of OU-Texas before and I've never seen anything get so rowdy.”

Video of Pritchett jumping headfirst into a group of young OU fans to fight made its way around the internet in a hurry Friday. Ward and two of his friends – Tyler Solomon, 26, and Tanner Hayes, 27 – had seats a few rows below the group of OU supporters the Alabama fan stage-dived into recklessly.

It wasn't just a dive. The woman then proceeded to scissor-kick wildly at Michael Connolly, the man SI.com's Extra Mustard blog identified as the target of the fan rage. Pritchett told yellowhammernews.com she was sticking up for her 16-year-old son, who was being taunted by the OU group.

Hayes said he doesn't know exactly what turned the incident from trash talk to throw-down, but it wasn't the only disturbance in Section 614 the night of OU's 45-31 win over the Crimson Tide. Before Pritchett was escorted out of her section, an OU fan was booted from the game by security about 30-40 minutes earlier for throwing beer cans.

There was a state trooper and another uniformed officer around for the beer-can incident, Hayes said. In the video, however, there were only ushers around the moment Pritchett went off.

“There had been cops present in that section, but for that incident there weren't,” Hayes said. “She cleared a few rows. It was pretty impressive.

“She was definitely escorted from the game. She seemed to leave pretty peacefully.”

Amidst all the WWE-level antics, there was a game going on. The fight came in a pivotal moment of the game, when OU was able to hold Alabama on third-and-long late in the third quarter.

Ward didn't catch the lead-up to the incident.

“I heard a ruckus,” Ward said. “But because it was such a big series, trying to hold them … As soon as I stood up to turn around, I just saw the 'Blonde Bomber.'

“My friend Tyler said ‘It's the biggest down of the game and no one's watching.'”

Solomon was, however. He was locked in on the Sooners' upset, seeing as how the group had driven seven hours to witness the upset.

They made their way back Friday with more than just a game story to tell. At least two of them did.

If not, there's always the video.

“I really couldn't tell you what happened,” Solomon said. “I was a little more into the game than watching people fight.”