Bizarre

High school kid calls a pizza shop from a phone in the locker room and has a pie delivered to the bench during a game.

 

RUNNER QUITS RACE, LEAPS FROM BRIDGE

By FRANK LITSKY, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: June 6, 1986

Kathy Ormsby of North Carolina State, who broke the collegiate record for the women's 10,000-meter run seven weeks ago, was hospitalized with a serious spinal injury today after she bolted from another 10,000-meter race Wednesday night and apparently attempted to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge.

Miss Ormsby is a 5-foot-5-inch, 108-pound, 21-year-old junior, a premedical and dean's list student from Rockingham, N.C.

Wednesday night, she ran at the Indiana University Track in the 10,000 meters, the first final of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's outdoor track and field championships.

For the first 6,500 meters, she and three others ran in the leading pack, well ahead of the 20 others. Then, according to a statement by meet officials, she ran off the track, climbed a low fence and ran across a softball field.

She then ran to a nearby bridge on New York Street over the White River and jumped off the bridge, according to a police report, landing in weeds 20 feet from the water. The bridge is about 30 to 40 feet high. The incident occurred at 10 P.M., and no information was released for at least 12 hours. Called 'Attempted Suicide'

The report called it an ''attempted suicide.'' According to Capt. Larry D. Propst of the university police, ''A doctor who treated her said she told him, 'I jumped.' '' Captain Propst would not identify the physician.

''She did jump off the bridge,'' said Lieut. Doug Cox of the Indianapolis Division of the Indiana University Police Department. ''The speculation is that she is a perfectionist, and she didn't think she had done very well. She felt despondent because of the way she was running. There is no physical evidence to indicate that anything else happened.''

None of the North Carolina State coaches or runners apparently saw Miss Ormsby run off the track. After 10 minutes, Coach Rollie Geiger became concerned and started looking for her.

''He thought she was crying,'' said an official of the Indiana University Track Stadium who asked that his name not be used. ''He was worried. He then decided to go to the river, and there she was. She had jumped onto a floodplain. He called for help.''

An ambulance took Miss Ormsby to the Wishard Memorial Hospital, 10 blocks from the track. Today, Karen Wilczewski, the hospital's assistant public-relations director, said Miss Ormsby was in serious condition in the surgery intensive-care unit. Damage to Spinal Cord

''They are checking for a possible fracture of the spine,'' said Miss Wilczewski. ''She has suffered a spinal injury with spinal-cord damage and chest injuries. We are unsure at the present time if the damage is permanent. Kathy is awake and alert.''

Miss Wilczewski said she could not comment on any signs of paralysis ''until we know more.'' Geiger spent most of the day at the hospital and was not available for comment.

Dale and Sallie Ormsby, Miss Ormsby's parents, were here to see her run. Carol Roberson, the hospital's community relations coordinator, said the parents had no idea what had happened or why it had happened.

A source close to the team, who also did not want to be identified, said Miss Ormsby had seemed overwhelmed by her recent success. On April 24, in the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, she unexpectedly won the women's 10,000 meters in 32 minutes 36.2 seconds, the fastest ever run by a collegian.

''She is a shy girl, an introvert,'' he said. ''She seemed to put pressure on herself that she had to run fast every race. She apparently felt she had to win the N.C.A.A. race. She was hanging in with the leaders, but I guess she felt she couldn't win, and she couldn't handle it.''

Stephanie Herbst, a Wisconsin sophomore, won the race in 32:32.75, breaking Miss Ormsby's collegiate record. Miss Ormsby had also been scheduled to run in the 5,000-meter trials tonight.

 

Minnesota hockey player who was mentally unbalanced.

At the end of a Final Five game -- in front of a mostly full Xcel Center -- he went back on the ice after most everyone had departed. Placed a puck at center ice, went in penalty-shot style, fired a slap shot top shelf and then continued full speed into the net, knocking it and himself into the end boards.

Got up, skated back to center ice and laid his stick down there before heading to the locker room.

 

I saw a guy go out and shoot trophies on the football field. Crazily enough, the same guy on the same football team quit on their megalomaniacal coach at halftime and won the big game. Quarterback went to Brown, I'm told.

Oh shit. That's when I saw Varsity Blues in my hotel room.

 

Little League 1984: I'm playing first base when the left-handed batter foul tips a ball to his left. Crushes a 10-year-old kid square in the forehead as he was standing right where the backstop ends. Pop. Sounds like a ball hitting a hollow pipe. The kid just stands there looking confused for like three seconds and just topples over into the arms of a coach. Had a lump on his forehead the size of the ball a few days later.

 

Was covering a high school softball game in 1980, small, rural school, and it was obvious that most of the girls on one team were completely shitfaced. Their pitcher couldn't have found the plate if she had radar and she was laughing her ass off. I asked their veteran coach about it after the game and she started crying, said don't put it in the paper but she couldn't deal with them anymore. Weird thing was she had coached most of those girls in basketball and had made it a couple rounds into the state tournament.

 

Sounds like they were halfway to realizing the Carrie scenario.

 

At my first paper, a high school kid celebrated a football win by running head-first with his helmet on into a concrete wall. Kid died.

 

I was a bit early to pick up my girlfriend, so I stopped at a bar near her house, I'd never been there. Saw a coach and her assistant sitting at the bar, no other customers in the place, went over and said hello, and they were unfriendly, bordering on rude, and extremely nervous. In fact, they left a few minutes later. I sat at the bar and drank a beer, and at some point, as some patrons came in, I realized that this was a bar for lesbians. I would have thought the bartender would have said something when I came in, such as, "Why don't you and your dick get the fuck out of here?" Anyway, after that the coach was veeeery cooperative every time I called her or covered one of her games.

 

I blame Gus Frerrotte (however the fuck you spell it)

 

That would just about have to be –––––––––––––, as I recall the story from when it happened.

Fixed.

 

Game 5 of 1999 WHL final, Pavel Brendl disputes a penalty call by grabbing onto his balls with one hand and flipping the bird at the ref with the other ... then spins around and shakes his ass at the ref.

On TV ... Sandy McCarthy and Darren McCarty playing rock, paper, scissors to see who leaves the ice last.