A series of fights at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion early Saturday morning was capped off with police confiscating a handgun from a student's vehicle.

The fights broke out during Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity's Black Ice party, an annual skating event that draws hundreds to the ice rink located near Nittany Apartments on the east side of campus, police said.

Penn State University Police assistant director Tyrone Parham said it was at the same party two years ago where Penn State quarterback Michael Robinson was pushed into a glass trophy case inside the Ice Pavilion and received 24 stitches behind his ear.

This year, a total of four fights, each involving about 15 to 30 people, erupted while police were there between 3:15 and 4 a.m. -- one occurring inside the complex and the other three in the parking lot. Only one injury was reported by a visitor who said he was punched in the face three times, Parham said.

After the fourth fight, a few people in the crowd began shouting that someone had a gun, Parham said. Police followed the vehicle that the man was driving away from the party in, stopped it and found the handgun and marijuana in the car.

The man had a permit to carry a concealed handgun, but Penn State has a no-guns-on-campus policy, Parham said. Police didn't receive any reports of the student pointing the gun at anyone and believe it remained in the vehicle during the fight.

University police recovered the gun, are double-checking the registration and plan to return the gun to the owner, who lives off campus. Since he has a permit, the student won't face criminal charges for having the gun, but he will be referred to Penn State Judicial Affairs and charged for marijuana possession, Parham said.

Police said the party is typically controlled, and the only reported problems in its history were the incidents two years ago. Parham said university police knew about the event beforehand and were patrolling when the fights occurred. He added that he had no idea why the groups were fighting.

On Sunday, Sheri Cramer, assistant manager of the Ice Pavilion, said the manager of the complex was called into work early Saturday morning to deal with the fights. She said she was unsure what exactly happened.

Manager Chris Whittemore was unable to be reached yesterday.

National Panhellenic Council President Endeara Campbell said she heard there was a fight at the party but because she didn't attend, she was unaware of the details.