My wife and I had the honor to sit 10 rows back behind the Northwestern bench @ a Homecoming football game (my memory is not perfect but it was probably 6 or 7 years ago). Some of our Hawk "fans" were totally disrespectful to the visiting team during most of this game using every sort of taunt and profanity (including racial) they could come up with. It continued until quite a number of the real Hawk fans confronted them directly about their behavior. During all of this, the NW players kept their cool (if I had been in their shoes I don't know what I would have done). They actually thanked us when the game was over.
My point is that the potential exists in all fan bases to be total a**h**l*s....it takes the real fans to stand up, confront it and nip it in the bud.