Duke officials were a bit surprised when, at 6 p.m. Saturday, about an hour before the scheduled kickoff, two men parachuted into the Wallace Wade Stadium and landed at the 35-yard line with a game ball.
Problem was, the Blue Devils — who were warming up along with opponent James Madison — weren't expecting it.
"All we know is, they must have missed their jump site,'' a team official said.
And they did — because the jump site was meant to be eight miles away.
North Carolina was scheduled to receive its game ball via aerial team at about that time in Chapel Hill. According to UNC assistant athletics director for promotions Michael Beale, the plane was in the air, but the jumpers from Virginia-based Aerial Adventures opted to cancel the leap into Kenan Stadium because of a bad weather front -- which eventually delayed both games.
Evidentally, when the clouds eventually opened, the pilot thought they were over the correct stadium, and the skydivers jumped — only realizing when they landed that they were in the wrong place.
The two men immediately scrambled off the field with the game ball, and when UNC associate athletics director Rick Steinbacher was informed by a reporter of what had happened, he immediately called Duke officials to confirm the miscue, and offer his apologies.
"In about five years, maybe this will be funny,'' Steinbacher said. "Right now, I'm just glad no one was hurt."
- Robbi Pickeral and A.J. Carr, (Raleigh) News & Observer
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Oops! UNC ball misses target, lands at Duke
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12 comments:
What a shameful waste of money, successful aerial adventure or not. Football should be eradicated from the athletic roll at Carolina in the interest of putting more low-income students through four years of college with the money saved, not to mention erasing perhaps the most prominent source of dishonor for students. Go Rams!
sounds about par for the course for the opening weekend of ACC football. what a joke of a conference.
Maybe in addition to the money saved from "eradicating" football, we could feed the masses around the world, eliminate war and perpetuate world peace. Football is one of the few self sustaining sports around...maybe if they didnt run NASCAR this weekend, they could give you the gas not used...highly unlikely.
"Football should be eradicated from the athletic roll at Carolina in the interest of putting more low-income students through four years of college with the money saved,"
maybe we can eradicate you moron!
Typical socialist... Steal from the rich to give to the lazy.
Perhaps you should offer the electricity that you use to connect to the Internet to the poor people who have no air conditioners.
It's pretty funny that you want to throw out the single greatest source of income for the University. As a low-income student at Carolina, I'm ashamed of your stupidity. If it weren't for football programs that sell out crowds of 60,000 people, far fewer low-income students would be able to afford a university education. By the way, are you cheering for the St. Louis Rams in a comment on an article about UNC football? Last I checked, I am a Tar Heel. Rameses is the only ram involved in Carolina athletics, so unless you expect a whole hoard of mascots to take the field or the court, then you are even more delusional than I feared.
The idiot complaining about spending money on football ignores the millions of dollars generated by football for other sports at UNC like women's soccer and the scholarship fund for "students" from merchandise sales. Has the idiot ever heard of the UNC women's soccer program? Nevermind those students getting money for college because alumni and fans like me spending $200+ in the UNC "Student" Stores each time I come back to UNC from across the country to take in at least 1 football game a year.
The "anonymous" poster who wants to eradicate the "moron" who posted some pretty funny sarcasm (in response) doesn't even recognize humor...but...but should seriously hope supidity is not terminal. As as Forest Gump would say..."Stupid is as stupid does."
Hello folks. I was at the game and captured this on video. Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axbq6UaUOfE
Yeah, the band practiced for a long time that morning and the day before, so we would know what to do, and they took the game ball elsewhere. Tough for us, fun story for others!
Heh, the band practiced altering pregame drill to give the parachuters a wide runway in which to land. We were all curious when they didn't show; but I never thought this would be the cause. The game last night had to be one of the most bizarre in recent history, but it turned out well regardless.
5:46 am is a blithering idiot. People love the tradition of college football, and educating kids. The 2 arent mutually exclusive.
Sheryl
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