Springfield's Wittenberg University cancels football game amid threats engulfing town over Haitian immigration

Ohio's Wittenberg University in Springfield canceled all athletic events this week, including a football home game scheduled Saturday, due to ongoing threats to the campus, according to school police and its athletic department.

The canceled games and practices are part of a wider halt of on-campus activities at the university, including in-person classes through Sunday. The city of Springfield has been the subject of widespread threats after false pet-eating claims about Haitian immigrants from presidential candidate Donald Trump — notably in his debate last week with Vice President Kamala Harris — and his vice presidential running mate Sen. JD Vance.

After receiving new threats on Monday, campus police issued an alert that "Wittenberg will go fully remote for the rest of the week."

Wittenberg's athletic department issued a separate statement Tuesday that "all home and away contests are canceled through Sunday." This includes a home football game scheduled for Saturday against fellow Division III program Hiram. Wittenberg's football schedule lists Saturday's game as "canceled due to campus security threat."

Trump has made immigration a central theme of his campaign against Harris. Springfield, a city of 60,000, has received an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants in the last several years, according to NPR.

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday that at least 33 bomb threats have been called in across the city in recent days and that all of them were hoaxes. DeWine said some of the threats came from overseas and declined to name where.

"There's a lot of garbage on the internet and this is a piece of garbage that was simply not true, there's no evidence of this at all," DeWine said of the pet-eating claims.

The threats have resulted in closures across the city. Like Wittenberg, Springfield's Clark State College has canceled in-person classes this week because of threats. Public schools were evacuated on Friday amid threats and closed on Monday. They reopened Tuesday amid heightened security, including the presence of state troopers and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Springfield also canceled its CultureFest, an annual celebration of diversity and arts. It was scheduled to start on Sept. 27.

Ohio Department of Public Safety director Andy Wilson denounced the threats and the disruption to daily life in Springfield.

“The people who are doing this are doing this to sow discord in our community,” Wilson said, per the Associated Press. “We just can’t let them do that. We can’t let them do that. We have to keep providing the services that the citizens of Springfield and Clark County expect.”