An early Sunday morning scuffle involving members of the UW football team sent the Badgers' starting quarterback, Brooks Bollinger, to UW Hospital, where he was treated and released for undisclosed injuries.
\There was a large disturbance involving football players last night,"" said Madison Police Sgt. Melissa Schiferl Sunday.
""Four individuals were actively fighting ... and two individuals ran off [when police arrived],"" Schiferl said. ""The two individuals contacted by the officer were not football players but said the two who ran off were.""
Schiferl was unable to provide the names of any of the people who took part in the altercation.
The nursing supervisor on duty at UW Hospital Sunday night confirmed Bollinger was cared for Sunday morning.
""[He was] treated and released,"" she said.
UW-Madison Assistant Athletics Director Steve Malchow, who oversees communications for the Athletics Department, said he was unaware of the situation and would neither confirm nor deny any athlete's involvement in the incident.
Two eyewitnesses established the involvement of UW football players, including Bollinger, in the altercation, which eventually included more than 30 people and occurred outside of Ian's Pizza, 319 N. Frances St., around 3:30 a.m. Sunday.
""There was a lot of talking and pushing and like a minute of fighting,"" said Brant Reilly, a University of Michigan student. Reilly said he was eating at Ian's with his friend John Gekas, a second-year law student at the University of Virginia, when the event occurred.
According to the eyewitnesses, a number of people got into an argument with members of the UW football team and when Bollinger attempted to separate the two groups he was hit in the face, instigating a larger fight.
Gekas said the football players only started to retaliate after Bollinger was punched.
""[Bollinger] was trying to break up the fight,"" Gekas said. ""He got hit and that's when everyone got upset.""
After the initial scuffle involving about a dozen people, more than 30 people flooded into the Lot 46 Southeast Campus Parking Ramp on the corner of North Francis and West Johnson streets, where the fight escalated, according to Reilly.
A third eyewitness, who asked not to be identified, said the disturbance ended when two squad cars came to the lot in response to the altercation.
