In a clash of cultures that threatened to spiral into bloodshed, the Princeton University band received a harsh welcome from offended cadets at the Charleston, S.C., military college when the two schools' football teams squared off for the first time over the weekend.

The band's president, Princeton senior Alex Barnard, said some 80 over-aggressive cadets roughed up two people, broke a clarinet, stole members' hats and cursed the band when it inadvertently marched along the "Avenue of Remembrance," a campus street that honors The Citadel's war dead. Later, as the band performed its unusual routine during the halftime show, the crowd of 13,000 booed relentlessly, chanting "Go home, Princeton" and shouting profanities and anti-homosexual slurs. Several videos of the display have made it onto YouTube.

After the show, a group of cadets again gathered around the band members, reducing some to tears before police intervened, Barnard said.

"Thirty cadets had surrounded us in the stands and were screaming in our faces," said Barnard, a 21-year-old sociology major from Flagstaff, Ariz., today.

The incident prompted a pseudo-apology from The Citadel's president, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa. In a statement, Rosa said the school, one of the nation's top military colleges, "must hold cadets to a higher standard."

"We will use this episode as a learning experience to reinforce with cadets that they are representatives of The Citadel, and that their behavior redounds to the reputation of the college," Rosa said.

There was less contrition from the local media. One columnist for the Post and Courier of Charleston wrote that the cadets "should be given a medal for standing up for their school" and that the Princeton band should be "ashamed."

"All those pseudo-intellectuals and not a single brain among them," the columnist concluded.

Princeton's administration is standing by the band, saying it worked with The Citadel long before the game to ensure nothing would be offensive.

"They met every request that The Citadel required," Princeton spokeswoman Cass Cliatt said.

Princeton's band is a "scramble band," so named because members frequently break ranks from a traditional march and rush around the field. Members wear bright orange jackets and sometimes play instruments fashioned out of unusual objects, from toilet seats to car mufflers.

During halftime shows, announcers read scripts that satirize and poke fun. There are fewer than a dozen such bands in the country, and most of those are in the Ivy League, according to the Princeton band's website.

"We're all about fun," Barnard said. "We're pretty non-threatening. We intend to look silly."

Barnard said he expected "southern hospitality" at The Citadel but was conscious of the school's reputation for seriousness. As a result, he said, he made sure the halftime script was approved by Citadel administrators.

But he was unprepared for the problems before the Saturday afternoon game.

Barnard said the 43 band members who made the 12-hour bus trip to Charleston didn't know they were treading on revered ground when they walked up the Avenue of Remembrance.

Witnesses to the fracas told The Post and Courier that band members appeared to be making fun of cadets with buffoonish salutes as they exercised on a drill field. Infuriated cadets surrounded the band, shouting and getting physical, Barnard said.

One Princeton student was shoved from behind. Another was pushed into a tree, Barnard said. Several female band members were spit on, he said.

The issue appeared to be resolved when senior officers ordered the cadets to stand down, but problems flared again during the halftime show, in which a band announcer cracked jokes about vice presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden and made seemingly mild references to the differences between the two schools.

"At The Citadel, a tour involves one hour of forced marching; at Princeton, it involves enjoying beverages at every eating club," one joke went.

Barnard said a couple of band members took the on-field hijinks too far -- two students were seen grinding against each other -- but that the band as a whole behaved well and performed the "tamest" halftime show of his four years at Princeton.

The Citadel's football team won the game, 37-24. The two teams meet again at Princeton next fall.

"We plan on showing them a good time," Barnard said.