What was supposed to be a friendly game of high school basketball descended to vulgarities and bigotry on Friday night just outside of Boston.
The division title game pitted the Catholic Memorial School against the largely Jewish Newton North High School.
Witnesses reported that around 100 spectators cheering on Catholic Memorial chanted “You killed Jesus, you killed Jesus” during the game.
Some Jewish spectators were disturbed by the explicitly anti-Semitic chant.
ESPN’s Brendan Hall, who covers high school sports in the Boston area, blasted the incident, calling on the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to punish Catholic Memorial for their fans’ behavior.
“I’m serious,” he wrote on Twitter. “MIAA should consider fining schools whose fans use hate speech. I’m sick of deal with these stories.”
Hall later noted that Catholic Memorial School condemned the chant and ordered fans to apologize to Newton North High School.
Some witnesses also noted that Newton North’s fans also used obnoxious and vulgar rhetoric, mocking Catholic Memorial School for being an all-male institution.