Utah women’s basketball victims of ‘racial hate crimes’ during March Madness: ‘I was just numb’
Members of the Utah women’s basketball team were victims of “racial hate crimes” in Idaho after arriving for the women’s March Madness tournament, according to head coach Lynne Roberts.
Initially staying at a hotel in Coeur d’Alene, roughly 35 minutes from the site of the games in Spokane, Wash., members of the basketball team, cheerleading team and band were walking to a restaurant Thursday night when people in a white truck revved the engine, yelled the N-word at them and sped off.
“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that? … Everybody was in shock — our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Utah’s deputy athletics director Charmelle Green, who is Black, told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that.”
The same thing happened as the group left the restaurant, this time with two trucks.
Green said she started to cry.
“I was just numb the entire night,” she said.
Utah moved to a hotel in Spokane on Friday.
“I will never forget the sound that I heard, the intimidation of the noise that came from that engine, and the word (N-word),” Green said. “I go to bed and I hear it every night since I’ve been here. … I couldn’t imagine us having to stay there and relive those moments.”
The No. 5-seeded Utes lost to No. 4 Gonzaga on Monday in the second round after defeating South Dakota State on Saturday.
“We had several instances of some kind of racial hate crimes toward our program and (it was) incredibly upsetting for all of us,” Utah head coach Lynne Roberts said after the loss. “In our world, in athletics and in university settings, it’s shocking. There’s so much diversity on a college campus and so you’re just not exposed to that very often.”
Utah, South Dakota State and UC Irvine were all staying at hotels in Idaho even with Gonzaga as the host school because of a lack of hotel space in the Spokane area. Several years ago, the city was announced as a host for the first and second rounds of the men’s NCAA Tournament and there was also a large regional youth volleyball tournament in the area during the weekend.
That left limited hotel space and Gonzaga received a waiver from the NCAA to allow teams to be housed in Coeur d’Alene.
“Racism is real and it happens, and it’s awful. So for our players, whether they are white, black, green, whatever, no one knew how to handle it and it was really upsetting,” Roberts said. “For our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, it’s messed up.”
Roberts said the NCAA and Gonzaga worked to move the team after the first night.
“It was a distraction and upsetting and unfortunate. This should be a positive for everybody involved. This should be a joyous time for our program and to have kind of a black eye on the experience is unfortunate,” Roberts said.
Gonzaga issued a statement after Roberts finished speaking, saying that the first priority is the safety and welfare of everyone participating in the event.
“We are frustrated and deeply saddened to know what should always be an amazing visitor and championship experience was in any way compromised by this situation for it in no way reflects the values, standards and beliefs to which we at Gonzaga University hold ourselves accountable,” the statement said.
Far-right extremists have made a presence in the region. In 2018, at least nine hate groups operated in the region of Spokane and northern Idaho, including Identity Evropa, Proud Boys, ACT for America and America’s Promise Ministries, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
