Outside the Beltway

Minnesota Student Dies in Goal Post Celebration

James Joyner · Sunday, October 23, 2005 · 2 comments

Richard Thomas Rose, a student at the University of Minnesota-Morris, was killed yesterday during a post-game goal post celebration.

Student Dies in Goal-Post Celebration (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.

Tragic. Of the things worth risking one’s life for, tearing down the goalposts after a win by a football team at a school no one has ever heard of is not very high on the list. The Cougars compete in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) at the Division II level.

The school bills itself as “America’s best public liberal arts college.” There’s not even a link to its athletics department on the front page; I had to go to the sitemap to find the football page.