We received the following mail from a Maryland fan:
Thank you for finally posting an article about fan behavior not directed at Maryland fans: "The Growing Nastiness In The Stands."I enjoy visiting your web site, you do a great job. But I am getting very tired of reading your articles about Maryland fan behavior over the years. I am a Maryland grad and I was there for almost every football and basketball game from 1996-2001. I was there for the infamous 10 pt comeback in 1 minute game as well. I do not want to downplay what happened. But I feel that the story has been exaggerated too much and almost doesn't reflect the truth anymore. With that said, I am still very sorry to hear about the bottle incident.
The point of my email is to thank you for noting that this behavior doesn't only occur at Maryland. I have personally seen it at most other schools in the ACC.
I will give you one example. I was in the marching band at Maryland and we went down to Georgia Tech for a football game. For whatever reason, Georgia Tech has the opposing marching band walk/march through their frat row before and after the game to get to the buses. Maryland came back and beat them in overtime. Our marching band was literally attacked by students in frat row after the game while walking back to the bus. There were bottles thrown at us, instruments damaged and bones broken. One member of our band was pushed down a hill and broke his ankle. I believe Georgia Tech has changed their policy now, but my point is that this is one incident of many that I have seen at opposing schools that at least equal (if not are worse than) the fan behavior at Maryland.
I have known this for years and am surprised that it is such a shock to some people that this occurs at other schools. So I am glad to see you post an article stating this and I hope you continue to keep this in mind in the future. Like I said, I love reading your site, but it is almost hurtful to read some of the articles you post about Maryland. I take great pride in my university and I also respect Duke for their accomplishments. With that said, I do realize I am reading a Duke fan site, but still... You guys are better than that.
Thank you for your wonderful web site.