Flag planting is a behavior humans have exhibited in various different contexts. It is often done as a means to assert territorial claims in military or geopolitical situations, though it has also become common in sports – particularly

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

in the United States.

In war

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

had multiple notable flag planting incidents, including those by American soldiers on Iwo Jima, by Finnish soldiers on the Three-Country Cairn, and by Soviet soldiers over the Reichstag. The capture of Umm al-Rashrāsh (modern day

Eilat Eilat ( , ; ; ) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port of Eilat, port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan as the Gulf of Aqaba. The c ...

) in the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

was marked by the raising and planting of the Ink Flag.

In college football

Flag planting incidents occurred, but were relatively infrequent, during the 2000s and 2010s. These included

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

players planting their flag on Notre Dame's field in 2005 and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

quarterback

Baker Mayfield Baker Reagan Mayfield (born April 14, 1995) is an American professional football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Oklahoma Sooners ...

planting a flag at

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

in 2017. Much discourse surrounded flag planting following the 2024 season's rivalry week, with

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

's upset road win over Ohio State and their subsequent flag planting on the latter's field drawing particular attention. Following the 2024 incidents, Mayfield stated "College football is meant to have rivalries. That's like the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

banning the ' horns down' signal. Just let the boys play". Former college football head coach

Nick Saban Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. ( ; born October 31, 1951) is an American sportscaster and former Professional gridiron football, professional and college football coach. He serves as an analyst for ESPN's ''College GameDay (football TV program), Colleg ...

conversely called flag planting "disrespectful" and "bad for the game". The incidents led to Ohio state Representative Josh Williams proposing the O.H.I.O Sportsmanship Act, which would make sports planting a felony in Ohio; Williams stated that "Behavior that incites violent brawls and puts our law enforcement officers in danger has no place on the football field".

In scientific missions

The

Apollo program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

planned to erect the American flag on the

lunar surface The geology of the Moon (sometimes called selenology, although the latter term can refer more generally to "lunar science") is the structure and composition of the Moon, which is quite different from that of Earth. The Moon lacks a true atmosphe ...

, with the

Lunar Flag Assembly The Lunar Flag Assembly (LFA) was a kit containing a flag of the United States designed to be erected on the Moon during the Apollo program. Six such flag assemblies were planted on the Moon. The nylon flags were hung on telescoping staffs and h ...

being the specific kit designed for this goal. Russia performed a crewed descent to the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

ocean floor The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as seabeds. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

in 2007, dubbed

Arktika 2007 Arktika 2007 () was a 2007 expedition in which Russia performed the first ever crewed descent to the ocean bottom at the North Pole, as part of research related to the 2001 Russian territorial claim, one of many territorial claims in the Arct ...

, in which explorers planted a rust-proof titanium metal

Russian flag The national flag of the Russian Federation (, ) is a tricolour of three equal horizontal bands: white on the top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom. The design was first introduced by Tsar Peter the Great in 1693, and in 1705 it was ...

Gallery

File:Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, larger - edit1.jpg, ''

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is an iconic photograph of six United States Marines raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final stages of the Pacific War. Taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press on February 23, 1945, the p ...

'' File:Kolmen valtakunnan rajapyykki 27.4.1945.png, '' Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn'' File:Raising a flag over the Reichstag - Restoration.jpg, ''

Raising a Flag over the Reichstag ''Raising a Flag over the Reichstag'' () is a World War II photograph, taken during the Battle of Berlin on 2 May 1945. It depicts a Soviet soldier raising the flag of the Soviet Union over the Reichstag. The photograph was reprinted in thous ...

'' File:Raising the Ink Flag at Umm Rashrash (Eilat) (cropped).jpg, '' Raising of the Ink Flag''

References

{{reflist, 30em Flags Flag controversies in the United States College football rivalries in the United States