EKU athletes suspended for bar fight with UK players

By Kevin Erpenbeck

[email protected]

A Jan. 25 fight involving football players from UK and Eastern Kentucky has resulted in the suspension of multiple EKU student-athletes, via a released statement from EKU Athletics Director Steve Lochmueller.

Lochmueller stated in the release that the suspended players’ future with the university will be determined pending the decision by personnel within the school’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

“The legal process has run its course and the Eastern Kentucky University Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities is following its prescribed procedure in dealing with the events involving our student-athletes,” Lochmueller said in the statement. “We hold all of our EKU students to very high standards and those who violate these codes of conduct are held accountable. This type of behavior will not be tolerated.”

The names of the players were not released in the statement, nor was the amount of players suspended. However, the Richmond police recently released a report to the Lexington Herald-Leader indicating that EKU sophomore center Colton Scurry was the “primary aggressor” of a fight at Jerzees Cocktail Lounge & Comedy Club involving UK players Drew Barker, Dorian Baker and Tymere Dubose.

Included in the report was security footage from Jerzees showing the incident between Scurry and the UK players. Scurry appears to throw a punch at one of the players, and is then escorted away from the incident by several people. Scurry later re-approaches the players and engages in a fisticuff with them. Scurry suffered several facial fractures as a result of the fight.

Another video was also released in the report, showing Barker getting sucker-punched by EKU defensive tackle Patrick Graffree at Telford Hall, a student-residence building on EKU’s campus, after the initial bar fight took place. In the video, Graffree enters the building, takes his shirt off, and hits Barker in the face, knocking him out for a few seconds. Graffree later walks off camera, and Barker is escorted out of the building.

Graffree was once a redshirt freshman on UK’s roster, as part of former-UK head coach Joker Phillips’ final recruiting class. Graffree transferred to EKU in August 2013.

No player involved in either incident was indicted by a grand jury. Lochmueller said in the statement that the university will not make any further comment on the issue.