East Lansing — Michigan State on Saturday night said it’s “deeply sorry” after the university received backlash after an image of Adolf Hitler appeared on its video boards during a pregame trivia segment.
A photo of Hitler appeared on the big screens at Spartan Stadium as fans filed in ahead of Michigan State’s game against No. 2 Michigan.
The image, which came after a prompt asking where Hitler was born, was part of a regular pregame trivia segment run by a third-party contractor.
“MSU is aware that inappropriate content by a third-party source was displayed on the videoboard prior to the start of tonight’s football game,” MSU associate athletic director Matt Larson said in a written statement. “We are deeply sorry for the content that was displayed, as this is not representative of our institutional values.”
Larson said the university will cut ties with the unnamed third-party source and “will implement stronger screening and approval procedures for all videoboard content in the future.”
One X user, Alexander Haenke, captured an image of the scoreboard and shared it on the social-media platform.
“I’m not saying it’s the end of the world or anything but you can’t have Hitler on your pregame scoreboard,” Haenke replied in a subsequent tweet to another person inquiring about the validity of the photo.
Haenke’s post had been viewed more than 672,000 times before halftime concluded and sparked outrage.
“Hi. Alumnus here. This is Disgusting,” one person wrote.
“Let’s not have trivia questions on Hitler mmmkay!” another posted.
Twitter/X: @madkenney
Christine Lake is a sports fanatic who lives and breathes athletics. With an extensive background in sports journalism, he covers everything from major league championships to grassroots sports events. When she’s not on the field or at the stadium, you’ll find Christine coaching youth sports teams.
