An official from the Kansas University Athletics Department helped organize a late-night party where a brawl sent six people to jail and another four to the hospital with injuries.

The brawl at Abe & Jake’s Landing, a downtown nightclub, took place during an event billed as a Kansas Relays afterparty, where KU Athletics event coordinator Tony Daniels and local promoter Rick Jones had invited prominent athletes and local musician DJ Scottie Mac.

According to the contract for the event, Daniels and Jones agreed to pay the nightclub $3,900 for use of the venue for the evening and for security. The contract was signed under the name “KU Relays.”

The KU Athletics Department organizes, sponsors and hosts the Kansas Relays.

Daniels denied he coordinated the event, saying only that he helped with the communication between Abe & Jake’s Landing and Jones.

“I know that the event was called the Kansas Relays Afterparty,” Daniels said. “But I was simply helping Mr. Jones.”

Daniels said he had helped organize the event in past years but that Jones took the lead this year, including paying for the event and security.

The club’s records did not show a name with the receipt, only a check number.

KU track and field director Tim Weaver would not comment when contacted Monday, except to say he didn’t know much about the situation.

Weaver told the Journal-World on Sunday that the event was not affiliated with KU.

He also said he had not previously heard about the fight. However, several witnesses said Weaver was at the party.

Several KU athletes were there, too, including Kansas football defensive back Rodney Fowler, who suffered lacerations during the fight, according to a police report.

Anthony Collins, also a football player at KU, was listed as a witness on the report.

Monday afternoon, Abe & Jake’s owner Mike Elwell sat in his office upstairs at the club, watching footage of the fight that the bar’s cameras captured.

The scene was chaotic, with the video showing a massive brawl breaking out just before 1 a.m. on the club’s dance floor.

Lawrence Police spokeswoman Kim Murphree said that at least 10 fights broke out at once, eventually spilling more than 200 people into the parking lot at Sixth and New Hampshire streets.

Six people were arrested and charged with various crimes, including disorderly conduct, aggravated battery and obstructing the legal process.

Three of the men arrested, including Kansas City Kansas Community College sprinter Travis Bowman, were from Kansas City, Kan. Two others were from Lawrence and another from Olathe.

The cause of the fights was still under investigation, Murphree said.

Elwell spent part of the day Sunday hearing accounts of the fight from his employees – he had 14 people working security, plus other bar staff and employees.

But still, Elwell said, the security couldn’t stop all of the brawls.

Elwell said several of his employees who witnessed the brawl told him KU football players instigated it.

“All I’ve heard is KU football,” Elwell said. “When you get this many people involved and they’re that big, it makes it hard to solve the problem.”

No football players were arrested. Police said they were still investigating the incident.

KU athletics spokesman Jim Marchiony did not return calls seeking comment.

Elwell, who didn’t witness the fight, said Kansas Relays had booked the night for three years running and that there had never been a problem before.

KU’s Daniels said it was important to have a social aspect to events such as the relays. Other big events held at universities include afterparties, and without one the relays may not be such a draw for athletes.

The trick, Daniels said, is to balance security with entertainment, so parties don’t get out of hand.

“We can look at other big programs to figure out how they do it,” he said.