Alissa Pili #35 of the Utah Utes is shown before the game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the second round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament at McCarthey Athletic Center on March 25, 2024, in Spokane, Washington.
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Alissa Pili #35 of the Utah Utes is shown before the game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the second round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament at McCarthey Athletic Center on March 25, 2024, in Spokane, Washington.
Steph Chambers/Getty Images
Police in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and the FBI are investigating after an NCAA women’s basketball tournament team said they were racially harassed while staying in the city.
Members of the University of Utah women’s team told police that someone in a truck flying a Confederate flag yelled racial slurs and revved the engine in a threatening manner as players and staff headed to dinner last Thursday. They say that same truck and a second one waited as the team returned from dinner and followed them back to their hotel.
The Utah team and the University of California, Irvine women’s team were in the northern Idaho city to participate in the basketball tournament in nearby Spokane, Washington.
âIt was really upsetting,â Utah head coach Lynne Rogers said. âAnd for our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA tournament environment, itâs a bummer.â
The NCAA says it has worked with the teams and the tournament site, Gonzaga University, to provide additional security for teams. The Utah team was transferred to a hotel in Spokane the next day. UC Irvine returned home Saturday after being eliminated from contention.
“I strongly condemn the appalling treatment of female college athletes visiting Coeur d’Alene prior to the start of the basketball tournament in Spokane,” Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond said at a news conference Tuesday.
The incident occurred in a part of the Pacific Northwest that was once synonymous with hate groups and has recently seen a rise in extremism, even among its elected officials. Coeur D’Alene and northern Idaho became known as a haven for extremism and racist groups in the 1970s and 1980s, when the Aryan Nations moved their headquarters there. Skinheads held parades in the 1990s. Activity declined following a trial, but two summers ago, 31 members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front were arrested there, aiming to disrupt an event of queer pride.
âThis is yet another example for people who falsely claim that racism is no longer a problem. They are wrong. » ” said Tony Stewart of the Kootenai County Human Relations Task Force at the news conference, broadcast by KXLY television.
âWe are witnessing a disturbing growth of a very toxic environment in our country and at the local level, by individuals and organized extremist groups who seek to promote many forms of hate,â Stewart said.
Idaho Governor Brad Little, Gonzaga University and the NCAA issued statements condemning the incident.
Local police are working with the FBI to investigate and are asking the approximately 100 people who may have witnessed the harassment to report what they saw.
