http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/5017020 Student dies after goal-post accident MORRIS, Minn. (AP) - A 20-year-old University of Minnesota-Morris student was killed Saturday when football fans rushed onto the field and pulled down a goal post at the end of the school's homecoming game. Richard Thomas Rose, of Benton City, Wash., was pronounced dead at a hospital after attempts to revive him on the field failed, school officials said. No one else was hurt. Minnesota-Morris Chancellor Sam Schuman said it was not immediately clear how Rose died. "I think the presumption is that (his) death was caused by a blow from the goal post," he said. University Police Sgt. Chuck Grussing said the department is working with the county coroner's office to investigate the death. He declined additional comment. Schuman said the stands were full, with about 1,000 fans watching the last football game at Cougar Field - an overtime victory over Crown College. The Cougars move to a new stadium next season. Schuman said the school will offer counseling to students, staff and faculty. "He was a popular young man, and I think students are shocked and in a very deep state of grief," Schuman said. Schuman said Rose, a junior, was a member of the men's basketball team. Minnesota-Morris is a public liberal arts school of about 1,700 students in west-central Minnesota, about 135 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
There was a Behind the Lines segment on this a year ago, someone was paralyzed. Football goal post maker not at fault in student paralysis Associated Press MUNCIE, Ind. - A football goal post maker is not responsible for a student being paralyzed after one of its posts collapsed on him under the weight of fans hanging from it after a Ball State homecoming game, a judge has ruled. Andrew Bourne of Liberty was severely injured in October 2001 when a goal post fell on him during a celebration of a win over Toledo. Two years later, Bourne filed a suit in federal court against Gilman Gear, Connecticut, claiming the company was negligent in how it manufactured goal posts. Judge David F. Hamilton of the Southern District Court of Indiana ruled this week that Bourne and any other reasonable observer knew the mob of students was trying to pull the structure down. The risk was obvious, and the goal post was therefore not unreasonably dangerous under Indiana law, he wrote in his decision. Gilman Gear attorney Thomas R. Schultz said the decision was common sense. "We thought all along the real issue in this has to do with letting fans on the field in the first place to tear down goal posts," he said. Bourne's attorney, Scott Montross of Indianapolis, said he would appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago within the next month. Montross said Gilman should have manufactured the goal post to come down slowly and not snap under the weight of fans. Most fans expect goal posts to bend over slowly because that is what they see on television sports shows, he said. The former student and his family reached a settlement with Ball State of $300,000, the maximum allowed by state law because the university is publicly funded. The judge noted that the maximum amount has not been raised since 1974, even though inflation has cut the purchasing power of $300,000 by nearly 75 percent since then. Medical care costs have risen even more sharply, the judge said. Since the accident, the university has installed posts made with a stronger steel that does not bend as easily and is buried in six feet of concrete. The university has also put up signs and issued warnings during games to deter fans from climbing goal posts.
Even if this was a stupid thing to do on the deceased's part, I don't think this qualifies as a Darwin Awards nominee. The reason being is that there were 1,000 people helping him. If this had been Baylor or Tech, there would've been 10,000 stupid people tearing down the goal posts. To me, if you've got significant company doing something stupid, it's not a Darwin Award. Now, if he had celebrated the win by dousing himself in gasoline, setting himself on fire, then streaked through the quad into the gymnasium and died, then yeah, he would be a Darwin Awards nominee.
Im amazed this doesnt happen more often. When I see those college football games where they do this...
