ANNE BLYTHE, Greensboro News-Observer
The Monday morning after a postgame free-for-all, the athletics directors at N.C. Central and N.C. A&T universities, not the football coaches of the rival schools, were closely reviewing game-day tape.
The athletics officials were scanning TV news tape for details of a midfield clash that pushed both schools into the news -- not for the nail-biting 27-22 game won by the NCCU Eagles but for the unsportsmanlike behavior after the last seconds ticked off the game clock.
Erskine Bowles, president of the UNC system, which includes both universities, talked Monday with new chancellors Charlie Nelms of NCCU and Stanley F. Battle of A&T about the fight.
"We are all in complete agreement that this sort of unsportsmanlike behavior was just plain wrong, and that it will not be condoned or tolerated within our university," Bowles said in a statement released by his office on Monday.
"I am confident that both chancellors are going to handle this matter appropriately on their own campuses and will take steps to ensure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again."
Battle and Nelms released a joint statement Monday evening that read, in part: "We have met with the teams and coaching staffs and have reiterated to them the importance of proper athletic conduct, good sportsmanship, and team spirit. ... We have not made a decision regarding the future athletic events between our teams but we are jointly collaborating as sister institutions to decide the best course."
Cressie Thigpen, a Raleigh lawyer and chairman of the NCCU trustees, was in the stands Saturday. On Monday, he still was gathering facts about what unfolded.
"I know that both teams were in the field in the center," Thigpen said. "Beyond that, I'm not really sure what was going on."
Thigpen asked NCCU athletics director Bill Hayes to review tapes and report his findings.
Kyle Serba, an NCCU assistant athletics director for media relations, said responding to the request had proven difficult.
NCCU tapes of the game stopped before the players rushed the field, Serba said. So he collected footage from WNCN and started a search for any other video of the incident.
NCCU already has suspended for one game a player, whom school officials declined to name, citing privacy concerns.
A&T officials had not reported any punishments by late Monday afternoon. Dee Todd, athletics director at the Greensboro campus, said if any players or coaches were found to have behaved inappropriately, they would be punished.
On Monday, Todd backed off statements she made over the weekend that the fracas would force her to call off a 2008 game between the rival schools. "We owe them a game, and at some point we will honor our agreement and return the game," she said.
But Todd would not elaborate on whether the next game would be played next year.
Todd said media reports of the fracas were overblown. The fight, she said, lasted for a minute and a half before coaches fully separated the players, not five minutes.
"There were no fists and helmets flying," Todd said. "No one was hurt. The coaches were trying to get people off the field."
Jayme Bell-Williams, a 1997 NCCU graduate who lives in Raleigh, was sitting in the stands on the 37-yard line Saturday night.
After the game ended, she said, the Eagles went out to midfield and stomped on the Aggies' logo.
"This is not the first time NCCU has done this to any team," Bell-Williams said Monday. "It's to say, 'This is our ground. We took control of it.' I don't agree with it, but it's been done before."
At that point, she said, the Aggies' bench cleared. "They rushed the field," she said. "The coaches got between both teams and started separating the players."
Campus security officers then came in. Willie Williams, the NCCU police chief, said one of his officers used pepper spray. Any time an officer uses force, he said, an internal investigation is done.
"We have done a preliminary investigation," he said, "and in our view, this [use of pepper spray] did not violate our policy."
Williams would not elaborate further nor would he identify the officer who used the spray. The chief said he had not received any complaints about the use of pepper spray, but he did receive three calls from people complimenting the officer for the use of force.
It was unclear Monday whether A&T officers also used pepper spray. Richard Holden, the A&T campus police chief, said he has launched an investigation.
Mable Springfield Scott, associate vice chancellor of development and university relations at A&T, issued a statement Monday calling the fracas an "isolated incident."
"The N.C. A&T logo was stomped following a very spirited football game where athletes competed vigorously," she said in the statement. "We regret the conflict, ... for this is not indicative of what we represent."
(News & Observer staff writer Jaymes Powell Jr. contributed to this report.)
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