Photo/Illutration The practice field of Nihon University’s American football team in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward (Yohei Kobayakawa)

Will the Phoenix ever rise again?

That question was much on the minds of sports fans after Nihon University formally announced Dec. 15 it has decided to disband its American football team following the arrests of three players in a drug bust.

The trio stand accused of cannabis possession and use of other illicit drugs.

Nicknamed Phoenix, the Nihon University team has won the Rice Bowl, which determines the best team in Japan, four times. It also won the Koshien Bowl to decide the top university team 21 times, second best in Japan.

The board of trustees of Nihon University met Dec. 15 and 11 members decided to disband the team while nine were opposed, sources said.

University officials later released a statement that said consideration would be given to whether a new team can be created to allow current undergraduates to continue playing.

The football team captain and incoming captain attended the board of trustees meeting and presented their plan for rebuilding the team.

The university had waffled about what to do with the football team until the formal decision on Dec. 15.

In November, 13 team members collected 180 signatures for a petition submitted to the university to retract the initial decision to disband the team.

Graduates of Hyogo Prefecture-based Kwansei Gakuin University, a major rival of the Nihon University team, collected around 30,000 signatures and submitted the petition to Nihon University on Dec. 14 asking that the team be allowed to continue.

Current and former players of Nihon University lamented the fact that the other law-abiding players now have no athletic outlet.

A senior said the board decision made no one happy.

“For team members who were not involved in the illegal drugs, they were made to take collective responsibility even though they did not want to,” the player said. “I have gone beyond anger to one of huge disappointment.”

Only a few players who lived in the team dormitory were involved in smoking dope, officials said.

A Nihon University graduate pointed out that of the 100 or so team members only between 20 and 30 lived in the dorm.

“Team members who commuted from home could not have known about the drug use at the dorm so in a sense they are the victims,” the graduate said. “I had hoped that those who were innocent could be given some opportunity to continue with the team.”

(This article was written by Issei Sakakibara, Masayuki Takashima, Chika Yamamoto and Hajime Ueno.)

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