Duke Rape Allegations Challenge Booming Sport

March 29, 2005 -- -- The allegations of gang rape against members of Duke University's lacrosse team has yet again tarnished the perception of college athletes, and dealt a blow to a sport that has been trying to shed its image as an elitist, largely white, niche sport.

On Tuesday, Duke University President Richard Brodhead suspended the team from the playing field until an investigation into the rape allegations is complete.

"Sports have their time and place but when questions of this gravity are in question, it's not the time to be playing games," Richard Brodhead.

On the night of March 13th, a woman allegedly hired as an exotic dancer at a lacrosse team party told police that three team members beat, choked and raped her in the bathroom at the house. No one has yet been charged and team leaders strongly deny the accusation.

The investigation is focused on three white male Lacrosse players, and the allegations have enflamed passions about race and class in racially mixed Durham, N.C. The alleged rape victim is reportedly a black female student at North Carolina Central University and a single mother of two.

"The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done," said Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. "It makes a crime that is by its nature one of the most offensive and invasive even more so."

Nifong said today that the 46 members of the No. 2 ranked team are united in silence and refusing to talk with investigators probing the rape case.

Duke University Provost Peter Lange said, "The students would be well-advised to come forward. They have chosen not to."

Critics of sports culture, such as Harvard Sociology Professor Jason Kaufman, believe their silence is emblematic of the culture of team sports, particularly at the college level.

"Any sporting activity is an intense bonding experience. There is a whole social culture that is associated with the team, often based on gender," said Kaufman. "Male solidarity can be very productive on the sports field and very anti-social in campus life."