Tony Anderson knows what would happen if his Lawrence High School team got into a fight on the basketball court.

“We’d run forever,” said Anderson, a senior center, groaning as he envisioned the laps coach Chris Davis would unleash upon the team.

Such punishments apparently haven’t been enough to prevent a breakout of recent brawls in the professional and college sporting ranks:

• Last week before the NFL’s Steelers-Browns game.
• Saturday during the Clemson-South Carolina college football contest.
• And — in an ugly scene that’s been replayed on television hundreds of times — Friday night during an NBA game between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers. That fight spilled into the stands, with players and fans throwing haymakers at each other.

Ron Commons, athletic director at LHS, said he worried the recent incidents would badly influence his student athletes.

“All of that trickles downhill — the professional level down to the collegiate level down to us, and maybe even on down to the junior high level,” he said Monday.

Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest was suspended for the remainder of this season for his role in a fight at Friday night's NBA game in Detroit. The incident has raised questions about sportsmanship at all levels of athletics.

‘Emotional undertaking’

Officials at LHS, Free State High School, Haskell Indian Nations University and Kansas University said they took pains to emphasize sportsmanship to their athletes and fans.

Despite those efforts, even KU had a relatively recent brush with sports violence: last year’s on-court fight with Missouri players during a women’s basketball game.

“It hit very close to home last year with that incident,” said KU athletic department spokesman Jim Marchiony. “Athletics, both at the collegiate level and professional level, is an emotional undertaking. Sometimes emotions override brains.”

Victor Sisk, assistant executive director of the Kansas State High School Activities Assn., said the trick was to prevent young athletes from emulating their role models.

“It’s going to happen, because when you see it on TV and see it on the games, it’s going to filter down,” he said.

6News video: Pacers-Pistons brawl might have local consequences On the Street: Do you think the NBA players who were suspended for fighting were punished appropriately? Audio: Victor Sisk on prevention Audio: Dwight Pickering on sportsmanship. 6News video: Parents brawl outside Central Junior High (11-19-04) KU coach, player hope situation never arises NBA suspends Artest for rest of season Commentary: Player-fan brawl sign of violent times (11-21-04) Four involved in brawl suspended (11-21-04) Melee mars Pacers-Pistons game (11-20-04)

Coaches at the four Lawrence schools regularly discuss sportsmanship with their athletes and athletes’ parents, officials said.

“I know all the coaches talk to their kids that this isn’t the NBA or NFL,” said Steve Grant, Free State’s athletics director. “I know they stress never to do anything like that.”

‘Million-dollar salaries’

Sportsmanship announcements are a regular feature of home games. A pregame message from KU football coach Mark Mangino appears on the video board at Memorial Stadium, reminding fans to be respectful of players.

“Certainly, you want fans to do everything within reason to help their team win,” Marchiony said. “But you never want them to cross the line, either verbally or physically.”

Davis said if one of his players got into a fight, they’d be suspended for a game and miss a week of practice.

“I can’t take away their million-dollar salaries,” he said.

Friday’s near-riot in Detroit resulted in lengthy suspensions for four players. Criminal charges against players and fans, who threw beer, snacks and other items at the court, also may be pending.

“Hopefully that will send a message to other athletes that we’re not going to tolerate that,” said Dwight Pickering, athletics director at Haskell.

Commons, though, worries that sports is losing what little innocence it has.

“It’s real disheartening to think it’s no longer a game,” Commons said. “They’re doing things that’s a street brawl — not an athletic event — once they cross that line.”