December 8th, 2011
07:26 AM ET

Oregon State football player collapses, dies

Oregon State football player Fred Thompson collapsed and died Wednesday night while playing basketball at a campus gym, the school reported.

Fred Thompson

Thompson, a freshman from Richmond, California, was pronounced dead after being transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis, the school said on its website.

The 6-foot-4, 317 pound defensive tackle died just four days short of his 20th birthday.

The university plans a press conference Thursday to discuss the case, according to the school's website.

Thursday morning, the website showed a picture of Thompson with the words "the thoughts and prayers of Beaver Nation are with Fred's family."

 Post by:
Filed under: College football • Football • Oregon
soundoff (131 Responses)
  1. Phil Newton -- Murphy, Oregon

    Lord bless the grieving friends and family.

    December 9, 2011 at 1:13 am | Report abuse |
  2. Babbarsher

    Very sad to see a bright young man leave. God bless his soul and his family.

    December 9, 2011 at 12:24 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Michael

    Excuse me- does his size really matter? His family lost someone rather young, and parents aren't supposed to have to bury their kids. Can't we table the talk about health for a different CNN article??? Just sayin'...

    December 10, 2011 at 12:53 pm | Report abuse |
  4. HxC19D

    The saddest thing is a lot of these young athletes who pass from one second to the next have enlarged hearts...a very sad condition that a lot of people don't even know they have. Therefore a lot of times nobody knows until after the fact. RIP.

    December 10, 2011 at 3:44 pm | Report abuse |
1 2 3 4 5 6
« Back to main