UNC Football Players Damage Duke Locker Rooms While Celebrating Victory

Update: February 16, 2015

Three months after victorious UNC football players spray-painted the facilities at Duke's Wallace Wade Stadium, North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham and Tar Heels head football coach Larry Fedora have cut personal checks reimbursing the Blue Devils for damages incurred.

The News & Observer's Laura Keeley reports that Cunningham and Fedora split the cost of Duke's repairs, which totaled $27,170.44 for new carpeting, paint and refurbishing Duke's practice field.

Along with the checks, Cunningham sent a letter to Duke athletic director Kevin White addressing the charges.

"While I may not understand the charges assessed, we take complete responsibility for our students and our programs," Cunningham wrote.

Cunningham's letter mentioned his disappointment that Duke publicly addressed the incident. He included a picture of pillars on UNC's campus that had been spray painted with the letters "D-U-K-E" in early 2014.

"The University of North Carolina bore the cost of sandblasting these pillars and did not make public comments of the transgression," Cunningham wrote. "I acknowledge we have no idea who did this, but I simply included it to demonstrate that all fans, teams, coaches, students, etc. need to appreciate and respect the rivalry."

Mmm...that's good. Rivalry pranks get the big headlines, but it's the adult aftermath—the huffy, passive-aggressiveness between faculty members tasked with mopping up after the kids—that is the finest vintage of all.

---End of Update---

Thanks to a postgame celebration that devolved into petty vandalism, North Carolina will be shelling out money in the aftermath of its football program's 45-20 victory over Duke on Thursday.

The (Durham) Herald-Sun’s Steve Wiseman reports that UNC players caused thousands of dollars in collateral damage after their willy-nilly spray-painting of the Victory Bell.

According to Wiseman, UNC players wasted no time in tagging their newly won trophy and sprayed paint over multiple pieces of property.

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Duke employees reported finding light blue paint in the locker room and the letters "UNC" painted on a door near the facility's entrance.

North Carolina head coach Larry Fedora personally called Duke head coach David Cutcliffe to apologize for his players' actions. UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham also phoned Duke AD Kevin White to make amends.

On top of their individual apologies, UNC released a joint statement from Fedora and Cunningham expressing their disappointment in the players involved in the vandalism:

"

We would like to apologize to the Duke Football program and Duke University for some inappropriate actions after last Thursday night's game in Durham. Our players took the celebrations too far when they were painting the bell, resulting in damage to some of the facilities at Duke. We take full responsibility for our players' actions and will be paying for all costs associated with the cleanup. We view this as a rivalry built on mutual respect and we expect our players to behave better in a way that is more befitting of the rivalry. 

"

While the school has promised to pay for the damages, it does not appear that any players will face repercussions for the incident.

In the scope of the long and bitter Duke-UNC rivalry, spray-painting locker rooms is relatively innocuous. Considering managers of the schools' basketball programs threw down in fisticuffs during their annual game this February, a bit of minor vandalism is a drop in the bad blood bucket.

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