Three members of the University of Iowa Marching Band filed criminal complaints Sept. 24, the same day Iowa State University athletic director Jamie Pollard welcomed such action as the two schools tried to sort through a Sept. 14 confrontation between fans and the band outside Jack Trice Stadium, The Gazette of Cedar Rapids reported.
The heavily redacted complaints offer little in the way of public knowledge in terms of the complainants' identities or exactly what they are complaining about. Members of the Iowa band at large took to social media following the annual Cy-Hawk game, played this year in Ames, claiming some among their ranks were pushed, pelted with flying objects, groped sexually and subjected to racial slurs by fans as they tried to exit the stadium and access their bus.
Pollard said in a news conference last Tuesday that the band could have used a less-congested exit, and an ISU law enforcement official suggested the band was moving too fast for fans to get out of its way — thus causing the physical contact.
Related: Pollard '100 Percent' Committed to Cy-Hawk Game
Their comments came a day after Iowa president Bruce Harreld stated "something really bad happened in Ames," and suggested that the annual rivalry game was in jeopardy as a result.
“The statement that ‘something really bad happened’ has created another narrative that there’s something else out there that wasn’t part of those five allegations,” Pollard said, citing five specific complaints his department received from UI — including that someone threw beer on a teaching assistant and broke a window on the Hawkeye football team’s bus.
“If there is, then somebody needs to come forward and share that with us,” he said.
As reported by The Gazette, UI police took the complaints, though the ISU Police Department is the primary investigating agency. UI officers only assisted band members in reporting the incidents.
