Earlier this week we reported on an article over at Larry Vaught's site reporting on allegations of hostility toward Kentucky fans at Assembly Hall in Bloomington during the recent upset of the Kentucky Wildcats by the Indiana Hoosiers.
Today, Larry Vaught has an article up with an apology from IU athletics director Fred Glass, which reads, in relevant part:
"I am writing to apologize for the unacceptable behavior by IU ‘fans’ that you describe. Thank you for bringing these troubling events to our attention. I want to assure you that we take this matter very seriously. I have directed our staff to issue additional security alerts and to promptly deal with fans that harass or intimidate fans of the visiting school. We have also directed our staff to be on active look out for fans acting in a belligerent or intimidating manner toward people wearing our opponents’ school colors."
Let me just say that for my part, I am completely satisfied by this. I can't speak for those affected, but this shows a great deal of class and sincerity, and demonstrates that Glass and IU take these concerns very seriously. As far as I am concerned, that is the absolute best anyone could realistically hope for.
I would still like to see the game moved back to neutral sites, I just think it made the rivalry seem even bigger and better. But with IU taking these complaints seriously, I think that is really all a Kentucky fan can reasonably ask for. As I said before, but for Larry Vaught's validation of the complaints, I simply would have ignored them as typical. But Vaught's comments have raised this issue to a completely different level, and I think that with this statement, IU has sufficiently addressed them.
This is my opinion only, and others may not agree. That's fine, but I think it's important to recognize efforts by schools to address concerns about fan behavior -- it isn't all that common. So thanks to Director Glass, and congratulations to IU for their victory, again. It was well earned, and nothing can take that away from them.