Hodie Ring

Also spelled "hoatie ring," this is Wisconsin/Minnesota slang for a ring of men or boys who surround a victim and push or strike at him from all sides, either as a form of harassment all on its own or to keep the victim in place and in an isolated fistfight with one of their own who is also in the ring but not subject to the same pushing, tripping, preventing escape, etc. (No wonder this term comes from the same place that D&D and MST3K came from.)

Mick, Tony, Dave, Big Ed, and like five other guys all surrounded Poindexter in a hodie ring and kept him there until his glasses, his nose, and his spirit were all broken.