Cal Poly asks grocery stores not to sell tortillas before Blue-Green Rivalry soccer match
As Cal Poly soccer prepped for its Blue-Green Rivalry game with UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday night, the university’s athletics director had an unusual request for local grocers: Don’t sell tortillas.
For those not in the know, sneaking in tortillas and then flinging them onto the field during the annual Mustangs vs. Gauchos game has become something of a problematic tradition in recent years — one that Cal Poly Athletics was hoping to curb this go round by requesting San Luis Obispo grocery stores take packages of tortillas off their shelves before the game.
According to Mustang News, which first reported Athletics Director Don Oberhelman’s plea on Tuesday, the tortilla tossing tradition was actually stolen from UCSB, where it’s been going on for decades.
The practice is technically banned in Spanos Stadium because it can pose a safety and cleanup problem, and in recent years has come under fire for potentially racist connotations.
Oberhelman told Mustang News he called a number of San Luis Obispo grocery stores to ask them to not sell tortillas in advance of Wednesday’s game.
“It is my hope that our local grocers will cooperate with us in this endeavor and understand that we need to protect our students from themselves because so many of them don’t understand how bad this is to do,” Oberhelman told Mustang News.
Oberhelman did not respond to a Tribune request for comment.
It was unclear on Wednesday how many — if any — local grocery stores had complied with the request.
Kickoff for the Blue-Green Rivalry game is scheduled for 6 p.m.
%20Cropped.jpg)