40 years ago: Downtown street fight results in three arrests

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Dec. 12, 1974:

A street fight outside the Free State Opera House, 644 Massachusetts, involving 200 persons early this morning had brought more than a dozen police officers to the scene and had resulted in three arrests. Arrested were William C. Hopkins, 22 (charged with assaulting a police officer, using profane language, and resisting arrest); Leo Calabaza, 22 (charged with felonious destruction of property), and James E. Samuels, 20 (charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest). Calabaza had been arrested after police said he fell through a glass window of the Finance America office at 646 Mass. The fight had erupted at about 12:30 a.m. following a concert by the Mud Creek band after a physical altercation in the men’s restroom had spread to the lobby and then to the street. Chemical mace had been used in small quantities to separate people in the crowd, and police had remained on the scene for nearly an hour, assisted by the Kansas Highway Patrol and Kansas University Security and Traffic.