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6:45 a.m. • 2-9-12

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Yow mural defaced on N.C. State campus


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Kay Yow free expression tunnell blue paint graffiti 1/31/09
Kay Yow free expression tunnell blue paint graffiti 1/31/09

A large portrait of North Carolina State University women’s basketball coach Kay Yow, who died one week ago from breast cancer, was defaced by blue graffiti and profanity Saturday night.

The mural of Yow, showing her face and her name intertwined with a pink ribbon against a pink background, was painted on the university’s Free Expression Tunnel early Monday.

N.C. State sophomore Forbes Starling, 19, said he heard from other students that Yow’s mural had been defaced after the N.C. State home game against rival the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Saturday.

Starling said he was shocked to see a blue mustache on Yow’s face and phrases including “cancer rules” and profanity.

“I just wasn’t expecting the anti-Kay Yow and pro-cancer writing,” Starling told WRAL.com late Saturday.

But by Sunday morning, an anonymous painter had plastered pink paint over the defaced portrait and profanity. A group from a sorority came later to do the same thing and, instead, started to work on painting the whole Free Expression Tunnel pink.

Pink is the universal color of breast-cancer awareness.

University police said they received a report about the graffiti, but that unless they find out who painted it, officers cannot pursue the case further.

Though it is unknown who painted over the mural, Starling said it is common for rival teams to write statements on the tunnel following games. The tunnel is normally under watch prior to games.

This is not the first time the Free Expression Tunnel has created controversy. In November, four students admitted to painting racial slurs in the tunnel following the presidential election.

RELATED TOPICS: NC State University

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What makes you so sure that anyone affiliated with UNC is responsible? I go to UNC and everyone here is just as upset over this as the NCSU community. I think the "person" responsible is just some idiot teenaged punk who though he was being clever.

There is no proof that UNC fans did this. Anyone is allowed to purchase Carolina Blue paint in this country and do with it what they will. But UNC fans or not, whoever did this should be castrated. It's an utter lack of class and does not reflect back towards UNC at all. Whoever these people were, they are no "fans" of college sports period in my book.

This is what is referred to as 'Carolina Class'

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