From the KU on-campus newspaper:
Link to story
A fight broke out among football and basketball players this morning after one of the Morris twins pushed a football player down stairs behind Budig Hall. According to Mary Skevington, Overland Park senior, who witnessed the initial outbreak of the brawl, players from both teams began throwing punches and shouting racial slurs at each other at 9:48 a.m.
Among them were the Morris twins, Mario Little, Sherron Collins, Tyshawn Taylor, Brady Morningstar, Travis Releford, Tyrel Reed, Thomas Robinson, Elijah Johnson and many other players. The only football players identified in the group were Dezmon Briscoe and Chris Harris, whom police from the KU Police Department were questioning.
Skevington said she heard a football player yell, "What did you say?" at 9:48 a.m. and run up a set of stairs behind Budig Hall. Skevington said she saw one of the Morris twins throw the football player down the stairs. She said the football player fell backwards down six stairs before being caught by a fellow football player. She said immediately after, several pairs of football and basketball players began fighting.
This screenshot of Tyshawn Taylor's Facebook shows several of his status updates from Tuesday morning. Taylor sustained an injury to his finger after a skirmish outside of the Burge Union on Tuesday evening. Taylor shut down his Facebook today shortly after 12:30 p.m.
Erryn Kindle, Eudora junior, said he heard one of the Morris twins tell the police later, "One of them just jumped out and threw his hands on me," referring to the football players who were involved in the fight.
Another source, who did not want to be identified, confirmed this information. This source described seeing football players running toward the scene from Sunnyside Avenue. They joined in the scuffle, which Skevington said continued for a few minutes.
"It all happened really fast," Skevington said. "There were a lot of people throwing punches."
Harrison Hems, San Diego senior, saw basketball and football players gathered in groups between Anschutz Library and the lower entrance to the Wescoe Underground. Hems said several basketball players were yelling at the group of football players. Hems said the group of football players continued to grow to 15 or more. He said police arrived on the scene after nearly five minutes of the players arguing with each other.
Shannon Jobe, Topeka sophomore, said she heard a football player tell the police one of the basketball players pushed a football player down the stairs.
Kindle said basketball players were trying to calm Collins down.
"Mario Little told me football players had beef with Sherron," Kindle said. "He said they were talking trash."
Joe Dooley, assistant coach of the basketball team, arrived while the police officers were questioning the basketball players.
After the initial yelling between teams subsided, the two separate groups of basketball and football players stood opposite each other, about 20 yards apart.
Police officers escorted some of the players inside Wescoe Hall shortly after the incident. The players were seen congregating outside the building near the entrance to The Underground. No police officers or players were available for questioning.
Sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor was seen but not admitted to Lawrence Memorial Hospital Tuesday night, a nursing supervisor said.
Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony confirmed that an incident occurred Tuesday evening in front of the Burge Union. The Lawrence Journal-World reported on its Web site that the incident involved members of the football and basketball teams. Marchiony did not confirm that.
“We’re aware of reports of an incident and we are fact-finding right now,” Marchiony said.
KU Public Safety Capt. Schuyler Bailey said campus police, which has jurisdiction on campus, would not be investigating the incident because no victim had come forward to file a report.
“Until someone comes forward, we don’t have a crime,” Bailey said.
Bailey said if a victim in the incident chose to report a crime, campus police would investigate but that there were no plans to investigate currently.
"Victim non-compliance happens often and it is not unusual for there to be a report to not be filed in an altercation incident," Bailey said.
“It has nothing to do with favoritism,” he said.
Player names and specific injuries have yet to be released by the Athletics Department.
GO-PHERS-GO!KU said "thanks, but no thanks" to Trevor a little too early in the process. They got an early commit from an SG (Royce Woolridge) that has plateaued as a player and is now falling down the rankings as guys like Trevor Releford improve.
Kemba's a big impediment to scoring a 5-star PG this year, unless there's some sort of guarantee that he goes pro after this year, which is never a guarantee for a 6' PG.
All the press has no trouble recognizing and naming the basketball players (most of the returning roster mixed it up either last night or this morning), but hardly any of the football players are famous enough to be recognized on campus (only 2 of the 15 believed to be involved have been named).
Just asking for the lay of the land, really. Thanks for the explanation.
