To the editor:

The recent bench-clearing fight between the KU and K-State men’s basketball teams was reprehensible — certainly a black eye and embarrassment for both schools, teams and the entire state of Kansas.

Bench-clearing fights, unfortunately, are not new in a variety of sports both amateur and professional. The typical responses of those involved are much like what we saw from both KU and K-State coaches and players.

What message would have been sent had representatives from both schools decided to respond in a less than typical manner? Imagine the impact and national publicity that would have occurred if both schools chose to respond in a unified joint fashion. Imagine if representatives such as the chancellors, athletic directors, head coaches and team captains of both teams held a joint press conference in Topeka ( neutral site) and apologized, took appropriate responsibility and gave reassurance that counter measures are being planned to prevent this from occurring in the future.

This would have certainly gained as much notice and comments from national and local sports news pundits and fans as the incident itself.

Mark Lafond,

Lawrence