The fight started when a group of UNC students in the upper stands of the stadium began throwing cups at people in the lower stands, police reports state.
Jeff McCracken, deputy director of the Department of Public Safety, said police suspect that three separate fights broke out in the same area, although it is not clear how many people were involved.
McCracken said he suspected the fight could have been prevented if some of the people involved had not consumed alcohol. But McCracken said police had not verified that alcohol was involved because no one was taken into custody.
Every time officers reached the scene, the physical fight stopped, and the people involved began to argue, he said.
"Everybody we talked to told us they were a victim," McCracken said.
But police reports state that members of Phi Delta Theta fraternity were involved in the fight. McCracken confirmed that the section where the fight broke out is a section where fraternities sit but added that no charges have been filed and an investigation is still under way.
But the fight put a damper on the game for some fans not involved in it.
"I didn't see it as an ECU-Carolina thing at all, and that was frustrating," said Bruce Anderson, assistant professor of military science, who witnessed the incident. "Why would you toss cups onto fellow Tar Heel fans? People politely asked them several times to stop throwing cups, but, instead of showing any respect at all, they started taunting and baiting their victims."
Jeremy Spain, a sophomore business major who also witnessed the incident, said one of the students who was hit by a cup started a fist fight with one of the students throwing cups. "They started talking trash to each other, and once they started hitting, other guys joined in," Spain said. "There were maybe 10 people involved in the whole section."
