Falling Assembly Hall fascia triggers timeline of events

I have taken only one nap all semester.

And, you guessed it, my slumber occurred right as the news broke about Assembly Hall.

When I finally woke up, I discovered one of the biggest breaking news stories of the year for IU basketball had occurred.

A 50-pound piece of a metal plate fell from the ceiling of Assembly Hall.

The plate falling postponed the men’s basketball game against No. 15 Iowa, which was supposed to happen on ESPN Super Tuesday at 9 p.m. As of Tuesday night, a makeup time has not been announced.

It’s fortunate that the event transpired when nobody was in Assembly Hall.

A video shown on ESPN spread throughout social media. It shows the piece of metal, which looks terrifyingly big, traveling 100 feet down into the lower bowl of Assembly Hall. The plate would certainly have done some damage.

An event like this doesn’t happen every day, obviously. Today, thanks to social media, word quickly spread that the sky was falling for IU basketball.

The use of Twitter got me thinking. How would this have been covered differently if this happened in the past without Twitter?

So I went back on my timeline and did some research as to who got the story first, and from then on, how fast it spread.

Spoiler alert: the story spread really, really fast.

Below is a chronological account of what happened yesterday.

2:30 p.m.

This is when the beam fell from the ceiling, Athletic Director Fred Glass said. He said he was in the midst of a meeting to discuss the new renovations to Assembly Hall.

Glass was pulled out of the meeting and told something had happened in the lower bowl of Assembly Hall.

2:50 p.m.

Glass and other IU officials arrived at the scene about 20 minutes after he was pulled out of the renovations meeting, he said.

3:30 p.m.

Glass and other University officials made the decision to postpone the game at about this time., Glass said. The game against the Iowa Hawkeyes, originally scheduled for 9 p.m. on ESPN, would not happen.

Once Glass made the decision, he told Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery, representatives at the Big Ten Network and the athletic director at Michigan University.

The athletic director at Michigan was notified because an IU women’s basketball game was scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The women’s game, Glass said, will take place as scheduled. Glass consulted with chief University engineer Jeff Kaden, who said the stadium would be able to play host to the women’s game.

“My understanding is Michigan is on their way to Bloomington,” Glass said.

3:36 p.m.

Announcer Dan Dakich, who was calling the game for ESPN, sent a tweet that said, “Metal piece fell inside Assembly Hall in Bloomington damaging seats. Being assessed as we speak... will let you know on status of tonight’s game.”

This was the first acknowledgement on Twitter that something had happened at Assembly Hall. As of Tuesday night, this tweet had 229 retweets.

3:54 p.m.

The IU men’s basketball beat reporter for the Indianapolis Star, Zach Osterman, tweeted: “BREAKING: Indiana announces that tonight’s game against Iowa is postponed. More coming. #iubb”

This was the earliest announcement I found on Twitter from a member of the media acknowledging that the game had been postponed.

Osterman’s tweet, as of Tuesday night, had 237 retweets.

4:02 p.m.

Jordan Littman, a reporter for Inside the Hall, saw Dakich’s tweet and said he went to Assembly Hall to find out what had happened. He wanted to see.

Littman, a former reporter for the IDS, was in his apartment in Smallwood when he asked his roommate to drive him to Assembly Hall.

He had to be dropped off because he wasn’t allowed to park, because the IU-Iowa game was supposed to happen later that night.

Littman got to Assembly, and walked in without obstruction. The first door he went to by the bleachers was locked. Littman then went around to the press area by the north area of building.

“I literally just walked in, and, sure enough, I was right in front of the damage,” he said.
Littman snapped a picture, which showed damage to five seats. He said in the tweet, “PHOTO: A view of the damaged seats at Assembly Hall. Can confirm game is postponed. #iubb” He tweeted it out at 4:02 p.m.

As of Tuesday night, the tweet has 217 retweets.

The picture was one of a kind, as no other media outlet was able to gain more access. Neither Littman nor I saw any other photos like it on Twitter. Littman’s picture ran in the Indianapolis Star’s story about the situation, along with several other media outlets.

Littman estimated he gained about 60 twitter followers after he tweeted the picture.

At about the same time as Littman’s tweet went out, a press release from IU’s men’s basketball public relations department was sent out.

In the press release, it said the game against Iowa was being postponed. The subject line read, “TONIGHT’S IOWA VS. INDIANA MEN’S BAKSETBALL GAME POSTPONED.”

4:05 p.m.

A tweet from the official IU Athletics account, @OurIndiana, said, “Tonight’s @IndianaMBB game vs. Iowa has been postponed. Stay tuned for more information. #iubb”

This was the first public announcement the University had made about the postponement after the game I could find.

From this point on, it was a frenzy.

Everybody with a twitter account had access to the information from either the IU account or the accounts of the media members covering the event.

4:35 p.m.

Chris Hassel, an anchor of ESPN’s Sportscenter, sent out a vine video on Twitter. The video was footage from Assembly Hall, and showed the beam falling from the ceiling and landing right on a chair, basically obliterating it.

The text of the tweet said, “Video of falling metal beam at Assembly Hall from SC.” As of Tuesday night, the tweet had 602 retweets and was still rising.

A look back on the event is fascinating, especially taking into account the role Twitter played into it.

If this had happened 10, or even five years ago, the news wouldn’t have spread as fast. Twitter has revolutionized journalism and the way people consume media. Once a story is out there, it takes off like a rocket for the whole Twittersphere to read.

Yesterday was a prime example of how quickly a story can spread with the use of Twitter.

It also takes away the importance of being first.  Back in the day, journalists’ entire careers were made because they broke stories.

Now, once you tweet something out other people know instantaneously. It is an immediate impact. Everybody can see it, and everybody knows it.

So while there is always a first with stories, the gap between first and second has dropped considerable. Nowadays, the gap is literally seconds between the first person breaking a story and the second person.

Who is to thank? Twitter.

And a prime example of why I should never take a nap again.

­— ehoopfer@indiana.edu

Follow columnistEvan Hoopfer on Twitter@EvanHoopfer.