BRUNSWICK, Maine (AP) -- A once-benign tradition that started
with Bowdoin College hockey fans tossing tennis balls onto the
ice has turned ugly.
   Consequently, future games may have to be played in an empty
arena.
   The tennis balls have given way to grilled cheese sandwiches,
coins and a steer's head, all of which have come raining down
onto the Dayton Arena ice.
   The college now says enough is enough.
   Earlier this week, police ejected about 100 fans after grilled
cheese sandwiches -- symbolizing that the goalie had been burned
-- came sailing onto the ice during a game against Colby. Bowdoin
won 6-1.
   Students had been warned before Tuesday night's game that they
would be tossed out, and their student identification cards
confiscated, if anything other than a puck was seen moving across
the ice.
   Flyers signed by Bowdoin coach Terry Meagher and team captain
Tim O'Sullivan also warned that subsequent offenses would lead
to the ejection of all fans -- even if that means games must be
completed without an audience.
   "It's been going on for years and years and years, but it's
not going to go on anymore," said Bowdoin spokesman Scott Hood.
   Students at Colby College last year tossed the head of a steer
on the ice when it was clear the home team wasn't going to
overcome a 1-0 deficit in the final seconds of the game. Play
was stopped for nearly half an hour.
   "It was red and bloody, but it wasn't dripping," said Craig
Cheslog, Bowdoin's sports information director.
   The Bowdoin-Colby hockey rivalry is one of several between
colleges in the Northeast in which fans have grown accustomed
to tossing things on the ice. But Cheslog said the tradition isn't
very funny for players who hit thrown objects.
   "If a skater runs over a thing like that, the next thing you
know, you've got a torn knee or a blown ankle," he said.