DURHAM, N.C. — For a few hours on a balmy Friday evening, the people at Koskinen Stadium can forget. Fans wear Duke lacrosse caps and T-shirts that read "I Love Duke Lax" without a hint of irony, cheering as the women's team faces top-ranked Northwestern. Players raise their sticks and whoop to celebrate a late goal.
Within minutes of the upset victory, however, Coach Kerstin Kimel finds herself talking to reporters about the university's other lacrosse squad.
The nationally ranked men's team was abruptly disbanded at midseason, the players under investigation after an exotic dancer told police she was gang-raped by three lacrosse players at a party. Because they are white and the accuser is African American, the case has stirred racial tensions in Durham and underscored the historically uneasy rapport between Duke and its less-affluent surrounding community.
"It's been hard around here," Kimel says.
The coach speaks briskly, earnestly, saying there are so many people for whom she feels concern: The alleged victim. The players who, at the very least, put themselves in a bad situation that night. The men's coach -- her colleague -- who resigned.
More than anything, Kimel predicts, what happened at Duke will send aftershocks beyond the school and the city.
She says, "I think there are a lot of coaches who looked at this and thought: 'That could have been me.' "
Despite elements specific to time and place, the Duke case joins a growing list of scandals -- notably at Oklahoma, Miami, Nebraska and Colorado -- that share a common thread. One by one, they have reinforced a growing sense that college sports are spinning out of control, riddled with pampered athletes who consider themselves above the law.
"I think it's dangerous to see [Duke] as an isolated incident," said Michael Messner, a USC professor who has written several books on gender issues in sport. "This is a really good opportunity for us to look at the culture of men's sports and ask ourselves, 'If the shoe fits, wear it.' I think it's a systemic problem."
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In the aftermath of the party at Duke on March 13, prosecutors asked 46 lacrosse players to submit DNA samples. A 47th player, who is black, is not under investigation because the accuser told police her three attackers were white.
The players have denied the allegations and, through their attorneys, declined to comment further.
