Hundreds of UMass students regularly "invaded" the Amherst campus for the yearly skirmish, a ritual that began as a wintry celebration and a playful rivalry between the two schools. However, by the late 80s, the fight had developed into a more serious and destructive event. Students pelted rocks and eggs in addition to snow, threw taunts and insults, broke dormitory windows and into buildings and even engaged in physical violence. In his campaign against the fight, Pouncey expressed his fear that the tradition had "turned thoroughly malignant."
One student sustained serious injury to his eye during the 1988 fight after being hit by a snowball containing a rock. He continued to suffer from reduced peripheral vision and blurriness in the eye a year after the fight, despite having undergone emergency surgery.
The increasingly vicious nature of the fight was a significant cause for dismay, since a once harmless and good-natured inter-school event had turned ugly. However, the violent behavior was limited to only a few individuals out of the hundreds involved. "The vast number of the students had come in high spirits for a friendly snowball fight, but ... there [were] also some on the fringe that [came] to vandalize the campus," reported The Student, paraphrasing Pouncey's concerns.
Those few participants had such far-reaching impact, however, that the fight had become too much of a threat to security, as well as a financial burden. The college reported that the fights resulted in $10,000 worth of damage to the school between 1986 and 1988, some of which was defrayed by contributions from the UMass chancellor.
The Amherst Town Police Department was prepared to respond to any hopeful snowball pelters in 1989, threatening arrest and charges "rang[ing] from disturbing the peace to inciting a riot." The College itself threatened disciplinary action against any participants in the fight. Pouncey mentioned that, if necessary, "the State Police could be called in and the situation treated as a riot," according to The Student.