The president of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens hockey team is apologizing for racial slurs made against the coach of the Moncton Wildcats at a game Friday night.

A small but vocal group of fans taunted Wildcats coach Ted Nolan about his aboriginal background during and after the game, held in Chicoutimi.

Guy Carboneau says the incident is upsetting and doesn't reflect the majority of the people in the community. He says it's hard to believe this kind of attitude still exists. "It's too bad it's still happening in 2005 but you know there's emotion and a lot of things that happen in sports, but you can't control what people think and what people want to say."

Carboneau says the team is sending an apology to Nolan and the Wildcats and says security may be increased in the rink as a result of this incident.

Meanwhile, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is investigating a complaint about the incident from the Moncton Wildcats.

Nolan is an Ojibwa from Ontario. Witnesses say Chicoutimi fans yelled French language slurs clearly at him, shouted war whoops, swore at him and made tomahawk gestures at him.

The insults began inside the rink, and continued outside after the game as the team boarded its bus. One of the fans is alleged to have thrown a garbage can at a player.

Nolan says the entire experience made him feel sick. "It was very sad. There were a lot of racial comments made towards my native background and I have never seen anything like it in my entire life."

Nolan says he had to put up with racist comments as a child growing up in Ontario, but believed those days were over.

Nolan says he'd like to use this incident to get the message out that racism in sports, or anywhere, won't be tolerated. "Sports is a wonderful thing. We can learn a lot from it. Unfortunately those things happen but maybe in the sport world, we can do something about it."

Assistant coach Daniel Lacroix says there is no excuse for the behavior of the Chicoutimi fans, and says his 17-year-old players avoided escalating the situation into an ugly incident by keeping their heads cool.

"It's one thing to cheer for your team, but when you start echoing some pretty nasty words, some fans went too far," Lacroix said.

Lacroix says the culprits were a small group among the 4,000 spectators. But they should have been stopped. "Certainly these poor security guards were outnumbered and not prepared to deal with such an event. You know, if I'm making eight or 10 bucks an hour and I've got 25 drunken guys in front of me, I'm not sure I'll stick my nose in there. But maybe they should have had a little bit more people – who knows?"

The Commissioner for the Quebec Major Junior League, Gilles Courteau, is convening his disciplinary committee to investigate the incident Monday afternoon.