Austin Peay AD glad football fans tore old goal posts down so Govs could put new ones up

Moments after Austin Peay's victory over Morehead State snapped the nation's longest losing streak at 29 games, coach Will Healy approached his family, found his 2-year-old son, Eli, and held him high in the air.

Eli, perhaps too young to fully grasp the scene around him, looked at his father with one question in mind after the big win.

"Where are the goal posts?" he asked, curiously.

► More: How Austin Peay ended nation's longest losing streak

Austin Peay's losing streak served as the sixth-longest in the history of Division I football. It was a victory years in the making, and a Fortera Stadium record crowd of 8,152 watched as the Govs won 69-13.

Naturally, fans rushed the field and tore down the goal posts.

Ryan Ivey, Austin Peay's Director of Athletics and the man tasked with replacing the goal posts, didn't get to watch much of the first part of the game. He spent time talking to students, making sure suite guests were taken care of and making his usual rounds through Fortera Stadium.

► More: Austin Peay snaps nation's longest losing streak

It wasn't until the third quarter that Ivey got a chance to sit down and watch history unfold in front him. After the game, Ivey sat back and watched the team's goal posts go down one-by-one.

He wasn't worried.

"It was just fun," Ivey said. "I was happy for these kids and this program, these fans and this community. That's really what it was about. To be able to see all of that come to fruition was really a lot of fun."

Austin Peay had been planning to replace its goal posts for months. They were 26 years old and leaning, so the investment for new goal posts was needed either way.

The new goal posts cost $9,300 total, arrived months ago, and they'd been stored in a facility on campus.

Ivey and Healy sat down before the start of the season to discuss what to do with the new and old goal posts. That talk led to the decision to leave the old posts up heading into the 2017 season.

The Governors played the first two games at Cincinnati and Miami-Ohio. If the team managed to win either of those games, Ivey was ready to invite students and people of Clarksville to Fortera Stadium as late as 3 a.m. after the game to rip down the goal posts once the team returned home.

"We wanted to let people celebrate and have a good time," Ivey said.

Fortunately for them, they were able to experience the win in front of the home crowd, a feeling Healy, players and assistants said they'll never forget.

The new goal posts should be in place by Thursday at the latest — the next home game is Sept. 30 — but the remaining parts of the old goal posts are scattered around Clarksville.

The baseball team took part of a goal post. Austin Peay's marching band has part of one, too, Ivey said. Some students stayed late after Saturday's game, well after most fans and even players had left the stadium, and sawed off a portion of the goal post as a keepsake.

Ivey took a piece of an old goal post home with him. If his vision for Austin Peay football comes to fruition, it will serve as a symbol for a new era.

"At the end of the day, this isn't the end result for us and for our football program," Ivey said. "This is only the beginning, and this really kind of signifies the changing of the guard for us."

Reach Colton Pouncy at cpouncy@gannett.com or on Twitter @CTPSports.