Cal defensive end Ted Agu dies after training run

[OmahaBlueDog]

Source: USA Today

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — California football player Ted Agu died Friday morning at age 21 after collapsing during a training run with his teammates.

"This is one of those tragedies that no one can understand and comprehend," an emotional coach Sonny Dykes said at a news conference hours after the death.

"Ted was a very special young man. As a coach, you have the opportunity to be around a lot of special kids day in and day out. He was a special young man. He just had a passion and energy for life that's contagious. He will be deeply missed. Our players loved him dearly and he was a big part of our family."

Agu was on a training run near Memorial Stadium with his teammates early Friday morning that was supervised by multiple members of the team's medical staff.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/pac12/2014/02/07/cal-bears-defensive-end-ted-agu-dies/5289099/

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Rest in Peace, young man.

[alp227]

1. Local stories & original AP link

Oakland Tribune

San Francisco Chronicle

original AP Cal defensive end Ted Agu dies suddenly

[OmahaBlueDog]

2. Thanks!

[Berlum]

3. To an athlete dying young

A. E. Housman.

To An Athlete Dying Young

THE time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.