Things got heated on the basketball court Tuesday night when an intramural game between two fraternities, Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike) and Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI), left one SMU student on the ground, reeling from being kicked in the face.
The game was a close one in the Dedman Center of Lifetime Sports, but Pike pulled out the win 28-27. After the final buzzer sounded, members of Pike stormed the basketball court after one member pushed a FIJI to the ground.
As shown in this video, submitted by “Tyler” via email to Barstool Sports, a Pike ran up to the FIJI and kicked him in the side of the head. Players attempted to restrain the Pike, who is a junior studying economics and markets and cultures.
A senior journalism major, who did not wish to be named, said that teams storm the games often, especially during Greek games. But that it usually does not get this out of hand.
According to the SMU Campus Police Logs, the students say the Pike was given a “conduct referral” for the alleged assault.
Several witnesses, unaffiliated with either fraternity, told The Daily Campus the name of the junior but will not go on record for fear of backlash of other SMU students. They say they are afraid of making Pikes angry and fear backlash on social media sites like Yik Yak and Facebook.
The Daily Campus received an email Thursday at 5:29 p.m. from Adam L. Seidel, a Dallas-based criminal defense and family law attorney stating: “Any unfounded allegations of misconduct published by your news organization would be severally damaging, resulting in all available legal remedies being asserted on behalf of [my client]. Please do not mention my client, nor publish any libelous allegations about him.”
The subject of Seidel’s email was the student’s name.
SMU’s Campus Police Logs do not provide names in their reports. They only state the incident report number, date and time reported, date and time occurred and general location dispatch. Because of FERPA laws, this is the only information SMU PD is required to provide to the public.
The Daily Campus reached out to SMU Police Richard Shafer, but he has not responded. We will continue to follow this story as more information becomes available.
