Violence mars both campuses...
Fans rejoice by throwing bottles, lighting fires
Police struggle to keep lid on violence; 15 arrested
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By Laura Vozzella and Laura Barnhardt
Sun Staff
Originally published April 2, 2002, 9:15 AM EST
As the Maryland Terps clinched their first NCAA basketball championship last night, College Park erupted into boisterous celebration and violence, overwhelming a police force outfitted with armored vehicles, helicopters, horses and riot gear.
Thousands of fans poured out of bars and into the streets after the win, lighting bonfires, setting off fireworks and throwing bottles over the crowd and at police.
Revelers pulled up metal barriers meant to shut down U.S. 1 near Knox Road and held them over their heads like trophies. Some used the barriers as battering rams to charge dozens of police in formation.
Other students who stood by seemed both repulsed and entertained by the melee.
"Shoot 'em. Shoot 'em," fans on the sidelines chanted to police.
"Tomorrow when they wake up and they're sober, they'll realize they destroyed their city and their campus," said Evan Parker, 18, freshman, from Los Angeles.
Police fired pepper pellets into the crowd, apparently hitting at least one person in the head. Officers rushed the bleeding man into a nearby restaurant.
Dozens of other fans wrapped T-shirts around their mouths, coughing and sneezing as they tried to flee.
Along U.S. 1, students climbed trees, broke branches and threw them into bonfires already fueled with T-shirts. Young men took turns jumping through the fires. Others ripped down police tape and wrapped it around themselves like scarves.
One student blamed the melee on the heavy police presence.
"Nobody would be doing anything if the cops weren't here," said Matt Morehead, 20, a junior from Severna Park.
By 1:30, the crowds had dispersed and the fires were out. University police arrested eight people and Prince George's County police arrested seven, said Kathy Atwell, a university police spokeswoman. Charges ranged from aggravated assault to disorderly conduct.
At least two were arrested for breaking into a bicycle store, police said. None of those arrested by university police were Maryland students, Atwell said. None of the charges were alcohol related, but several of the arrested were inebriated, she said.
An emergency room official at Prince George's Hospital Center said no one had been brought in for treatment, but several officers suffered minor injuries when they were struck by bottles and other objects that were thrown at them, said Lt. Bud Frank, a state police spokesman.
The manager of the bicycle shop was hit in the face while trying to protect his shop after a window was broken. His condition was not immediately known.
Troopers also broke up a series of bonfires on fraternity row about 2 a.m., state police said.
The night began with police bracing for violence and fans determined to savor every moment as the Terps took on the Indiana Hoosiers in Atlanta. Fans stood for hours to get into bars, with lines snaking out the doors and down the streets for blocks.
"I came out for the game, for the drinking - but that's not going to happen - and to watch the crazy people," said Nathan Lewis, 23, of Kent Island, who had spent three hours in line outside one bar and was still on the sidewalk after tipoff.
There was plenty to see outside.
On alert for the mob violence that marred Saturday's semifinal victory, state, county and campus police were posted on every street corner for a mile down U.S. 1.
More than 300 police, firefighters and emergency medical workers stood by at a command center at Ritchie Coliseum.
"Welcome to Parris Island," a campus officer quipped as troopers marched into the coliseum in riot gear. State police brought several armored vehicles. A police helicopter hovered overhead.
"Saturday night we didn't have as many officers, and it took longer because of that. Tonight, we had enough officers on the scene and could take care of it right away," said Maj. Jeff Cox, head of the Prince George's County police department's patrol unit.
Most people did not cause trouble, Cox said, blaming a few rogues.
"I wish I knew why we keep having this problem. I'm hoping tonight we found the formula for taking care of it," Cox said.
With a game plan as elaborate as anything coach Gary Williams could dream up, officers talked strategy, tactics and teamwork. They set up cameras to monitor the action on fraternity row. They took down street signs, removed benches, emptied trash bins and mounted horses.
School officials said they planned to enforce a recent change in the university's code of conduct, which allows the school to discipline any students who are arrested off campus for misdemeanors.
On Saturday, a mob had thrown bottles at police, vandalized patrol cars and smashed store windows. After Maryland's semifinal loss to Duke a year ago, students caused an estimated $500,000 damage by setting bonfires around town, one of which shut down cable TV service when it burned through a cable. The damage did not appear to be as bad early today.
Terps fever ran cooler elsewhere in the state, where the championship game had to compete with Opening Day at Oriole Park -- not to mention a sports scene dominated year-round by the Ravens.
Even so, interest in the championship game was strong enough to inspire a proclamation from the governor, a run on Terps shirts at an Annapolis sporting goods store and an oddball hallway chant at a Catholic girls school in Towson.
"Indiana has been living on borrowed time for quite a while, and I hope it's all over for them tonight," said Don Clasen, 38, a 1988 Maryland graduate who bought three Fear the Turtle shirts at Modell's Sporting Goods in Annapolis. "The Terps are on a roll."
Gov. Parris N. Glendening flew to Atlanta yesterday after proclaiming April 1 "Road to the Championship" day. If that formal gesture didn't scream excitement, a goofy ritual born in the hallways of Notre Dame Prep in Towson sure did.
As one girl passed another in the academy's halls yesterday, she'd begin, "Fear the ... "
"Turtle," would come the reply.
A white sheet flapping in the spring breeze at the busy intersection of North Charles Street and Northern Parkway was spray-painted with the same slogan.
In Annapolis, the game gave lobbyists another opportunity to woo state legislators. About two dozen delegates and senators, many wearing red Terps jerseys, watched the game on an 8-by-6- foot projection screen as they nibbled on Swedish meatballs and cheese cubes at a party thrown by Rifkin, Livingtston, Levitan & Silver LLC, a Baltimore law firm that specializes in government relations.
"It's a great night to be in Maryland and a great night to be among friends," said Sen. Michael J. Collins, a Baltimore County Democrat, as he sat in the Governor Calvert House Ballroom.
Travelers caught glimpses of the game as they grabbed slices of pizza and filled their gas tanks at the Maryland House rest stop off Interstate 95 in Harford County. Without a home team in the game, some didn't know whom to root for.
"I'm going for Maryland, but I've got money on Indiana, so I'm kind of torn," said Josh Herman, 16, of Chapel Hill, N.C., who was on his way to New Jersey with his mother to look at colleges.
At Oriole Park, Terps shirts were as common as Orioles caps. The biggest cheer came not for the O's but for a videotaped Opening Day message from the Terps coach and a "Fear the Turtle" banner on the Jumbotron. Waves of applause greeted two fans who carried a large white Terps banner while walking through the park.
Fans of basketball and baseball struggled to give both sports their due.
Baltimore County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Class of' '67, sported a Terps sweat shirt last week and ordered the courthouse to be lighted in red. But he was decked out in Oriole orange yesterday morning, according to his spokeswoman, Elise Armacost.
"But I'm sure he'll be shedding that for red as soon as the game's over," she said. At Kmart in Catonsville, $16.99 Terps shirts were selling but not as hotcake-quick as Ravens shirts did throughout football season, said Renay Snowden, men's clothing manager.
"I guess a lot of people aren't really into basketball like they're into football," she said. "I like basketball too, but I love football."
She said she identifies with the football team because it plays close by. "It's Baltimore Ravens," she said. "They got the stadium."
At a West Baltimore street corner where he sells bedding from a truck, Anthony Jackson worried about getting stuck with $300 worth of Terps flags.
Late last week, after Maryland made the Final Four, Jackson added flags to the mix of sheets and comforters he usually peddles at Swann Avenue and Route 40. As of yesterday afternoon, he hadn't sold a single flag. He'd already dropped the price, from $15 to $10.
"It's probably a professional thing," said Jackson, 21. "People are into the professional league instead of the college league. They like bigger names."
UM merchandise was moving faster outside a Shell station a few miles west on Route 40.
"People are real excited," said salesman Larry Wynn. "The whole area's pumped up."
But a lot of the buyers had just jumped on the Maryland bandwagon, Wynn said, and that made them less likely to splurge.
"Real fans, they might ask the price. But most true fans, they come up and they buy the merchandise," he said. "Your fair weather fans come the day after they lost and want it for half price."
As if on cue, Charles Avery of Gaithersburg pulled up in his GMC pickup and tried to get a break on a $20 Final Four cap.
"Come on, man," said Avery, 49, when Wynn told him the price. "You're trying to butcher me. Those ought to be down now. Its not the Final Four anymore. Its the final two. Those ought to be discounted."
Eventually, he got the hat for $15.
At Champps Restaurant at The Mall in Columbia, manager Jamie Welsh was bracing for big crowds, starting with afternoon baseball and rolling right into the evening's championship game.
Terps fans had crowded the restaurant Saturday and even did the wave from their tables.
"We would expect it to be the biggest Monday we've ever had," he said. "We'd probably consider this a national holiday, especially if you were a Maryland grad."
Terps fever was not hot enough to spill into some of the non-sports venues that got swept up in Ravens mania a few months ago. The sign outside the Old Mill Bakery Café in historic Ellicott City had screamed "Go Ravens" when the football team was in the playoffs in January. Yesterday it read: "New! White Chocolate Crème Brulee Latte."
Sports fans are hardly complaining that Maryland has more than its share of teams to follow. "This is so cool," said Ashley Yulhern, 17, of Catonsville. "First the Ravens, then the Terps. We're coming up."
This article was updated by SunSpot staff with information from the Associated Press. Sun staff writers Stephanie Desmon, Laurie Willis, Tim Craig, Johnathon E. Briggs, Andrew A. Green, Candus Thomson, Gail Gibson, David Nitkin, Patricia Fanning, Gerard Shields, C. Fraser Smith and Susan Reimer also contributed.
Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun
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Police fire tear gas into crowd during post-game disturbance
By Kimberly Hefling
The Associated Press
April 02, 2002
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A Mardis Gras-like celebration turned violent early Tuesday when fans upset by Indiana's loss to Maryland in the NCAA tournament began throwing beer bottles at officers, who responded with tear gas.
As the acrid gas spread, hundreds of students and fans fled from an intersection near the edge of the Indiana University campus about 1:30 a.m., with police arresting about 30 people.
The violence came after some members of an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 celebrating students and fans turned bitter after Indiana lost to Maryland 64-52 late Monday night.
Capt. Mike Deikhoff of Bloomington Police said officers decided to fire tear gas into the crowd after some people who had set fires began throwing beer bottles, striking some students and officers.
"When students started getting pelted with bottles that's when we decided to move and disperse the crowd," Deikhoff said. "If the crowd hadn't started throwing beer bottles and setting fires we wouldn't have had to act."
Several students and a few officers were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries after they were struck in the head by bottles, he said.
Officers fired nine canisters of tear gas to clear out the crowd, and also used a Pepperball launcher, which fires marble-sized plastic balls that break on impact into a dusty cloud of acrid pepper dust.
About 30 students were arrested on charges ranging from public intoxication, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct, Deikhoff said.
Travis Baird, a student at DePauw University who visited Bloomington to watch the game, said he saw the bottles being hurled at police. He said he was overcome by tear gas and struck by one of the Pepperballs.
"I can't blame them (police) for doing something, but maybe not to the extent that they were doing it," said Baird.
Erin Donnelly was also in the crowd near Bloomington's Kirkwood Avenue and Dunn Street when he saw students set two fires and try to knock over a street lamp. "I think the lamp was the last straw," he said.
By 2:30 a.m., most of the crowd had dispersed, allowing city crews to begin assessing damage that included toppled light poles, Deikhoff said.
Before it took a violent turn, the night had been one of drinking and celebrating for Indiana fans and students, who set off fireworks while young men dared young women to bare their breasts.
Even after Indiana's loss, some students kept a sense of humor, jumping up and down and screaming, "We're No. 2!"
Police shut down intersections in downtown Bloomington about 11:15 p.m., before fans spilled out of bars, houses and dorms to share their disappointment.
Minutes later, vandalism reports began pouring in, starting with a trash fire near an apartment complex and students setting ablaze couches, trash bins and others items. Street signs were torn down and post office deposit boxes were toppled.
Kent Sharp, a student at Ivy Tech in Indianapolis, said the crowd's actions were "all in fun."
But he added, "if you want to sit out here and make trouble, you have to be willing to take the consequences."
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