# Has any athlete ever been paralyzed from an in-game injury? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 10, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500 "2007-05-10T02:47:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/1 "2007-05-10T02:47:21Z")
I’m watching the Golden State vs. Utah NBA playoff game and one of the Utah Jazz players had quite the nasty spill. He was sliding backwards on his butt with his body upright and then somone else basically fell on his head. It looked really bad but he’s apparently OK (he can move his limbs and everything, he’s in the hospital though). I’ve wondered about this before – I’m surprised a really bad accident like this hasn’t happened before in basektball (huge guys falling out of the air, no helmets, no padding, and the addition of a hardwood floor) or any other sport, really, especially rugby, soccer, or football. I think I remember a story several years ago of a high school cheerleader being severely hurt because her fellow cheerleaders didn’t catch her when she was in the air and she landed poorly but I could be wrong. I don’t think she was paralyzed but I don’t remember much. Are there any examples? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/2 "2007-05-10T02:51:12Z")
Hmmm. I recall a college football player with a severe neck injury during practice, but I can’t recall anything that would have been televised. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/3 "2007-05-10T02:54:18Z")
[Darryl Stingley.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_Stingley) This is the most famous case I can think of. He was a quadraplegic after a devastating hit from Jack Tatum in 1978. He died last month. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/4 "2007-05-10T02:57:00Z")
[Darryl Stingley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_Stingley) Also I guess Christopher Reeve counts - he was injured in a horse jumping competition. ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/5 "2007-05-10T02:58:17Z")
As Argent Staley said, Darryl Stingley was paralyzed in a pre-season game. Dennis Byrd, a football player for the New York Jets, was paralyzed in a game in the early 1990’s. Two players from the Detroit Lions have been paralyzed, Mike Utley, a lineman, and Reggie Brown, a linebacker. Adam Taliaferro was a freshman at Penn State when he was paralyzed in a game (I think it was against Ohio State). There was a football player for the University of Washington that was paralyzed, and later died. Some of the players (Byrd, Utley, Brown, Taliaferro) will have some function return to the point where they are able to walk again. Stingley was a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. ---
**Author:** ![Bender44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@Bender44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bender44)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/6 "2007-05-10T02:58:55Z")
Plenty in football-[Darryl Stingley,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_Stingley) [Dennis Byrd,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Byrd) [Mike Utley](http://www.mikeutley.org/) And thats just in the pro’s ---
**Author:** ![Queuing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/90ced4/32.png) [@Queuing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queuing)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/7 "2007-05-10T03:05:06Z")
Happens in hockey as well. [Travis Roy Foundation](http://www.travisroyfoundation.org/index.htm) ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/8 "2007-05-10T03:05:42Z")
Here is the hit on Stingly: [http://youtube.com/watch?v=5fpbnPHoi04](http://youtube.com/watch?v=5fpbnPHoi04) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/9 "2007-05-10T03:19:58Z")
Hall of fame player [Nick Bouniconti](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Buoniconti)’s son Marc was paralyzed after making a hit during a college game: > [@](#): > > In 1985, after his son Marc suffered a paralyzing spinal cord injury making a tackle for The Citadel, Nick became the public face of the group that founded the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, now one of the world’s leading neurological research centers. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/10 "2007-05-10T03:24:07Z")
Risk of spinal cord injury is quite high in both rugby union and league. There are various rules, particularly regarding scrums and tackling, that attempt to lower this risk. [http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/834/1/Union-players-face-quadriplegic-threat/Page-1.html](http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/834/1/Union-players-face-quadriplegic-threat/Page-1.html) > [@](#): > > Rugby union players are four times more likely to wind up as quadriplegics than their rugby league counterparts, new research shows. > > A study by Adelaide’s Flinders University Research Centre for Injury Studies analysed severe spinal cord injuries among players of both codes in NSW between 1986 and 2005. > > Researchers found 61 cases of Quadriplegia as a result of catastrophic neck injuries - 36 from union and 25 from league. > > At best these players were left with slight movement in their shoulders, but most were completely paralysed from the neck down. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/11 "2007-05-10T04:09:56Z")
Thanks for the replies everyone. It would appear this isn’t as ususual as I thought it might. I did my own little search and found the case of gymnast [Sang Lan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sang_Lan), who was paralyzed below her midchest during the 1999 Goodwill Games. I’m sure she’s not the only one for her sport. I shpuld have mentioned gymnastics in the OP, that definitely takes some courage – one little slip or mistake while spinng in the air and…ouch. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/12 "2007-05-10T04:21:19Z")
[QUOTE=1920s Style “Death Ray”] Risk of spinal cord injury is quite high in both rugby union and league. There are various rules, particularly regarding scrums and tackling, that attempt to lower this risk. [/QUOTE] Yep. When i was in about grade 8, a player on my high school’s First XV rugby team broke his neck during a game and has been in a wheelchair ever since. He was playing in the centers, and made what looked like a routine tackle on a guy running towards him, but he got his head at a bad angle and when they collided it broke his neck. I hadn’t thought about him for years, but i Googled him after opening this thread, and it appears he is actively involved in Wheelchair Rugby, and was a member of the Australian team at the [2002 Wheelchair Rugby World Championships](http://www.cwsa.ca/wc-2002-res.html) in Sweden. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/13 "2007-05-10T04:59:59Z")
In girls’ sports, more than half of the catastrophic injuries - those causing **paralysis or death** - are happening on the sidelines, in cheerleading accidents. Cite: [CBS News](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/22/eveningnews/main613227.shtml) Some of this is accounted for by the fact that cheerleading is a year-round sport. Often cheerleading coaches are not professionally trained in injury prevention. Often no sports doctor is on hand to treat injuries for cheerleaders, so more participants go directly to emergency rooms. Finally, cheerleading stunts seem to be getting more and more daring. According to a recent article in the journal _Pediatrics_, cheerleading injuries have more than doubled in the past thirteen years despite the fact that participation has increased by only eighteen percent. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/14 "2007-05-10T05:18:03Z")
The New York Times also had a good [article](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/sports/31cnd-cheerleader.html?ex=1178942400&en=f67e0e23f1266eec&ei=5070) on cheerleading injuries recently. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/15 "2007-05-10T05:36:04Z")
Travis Roy, from the Boston College hockey squad, was paralyzed from the neck down 11 seconds into his first game as a college player. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/16 "2007-05-10T09:34:17Z")
A fellow called [John Farragher](http://www.panthers.com.au/default.aspx?id=90&ArticleID=331) broke his neck playing first grade Rubgy League for Penrith in 1978. He stayed with the club and was voted Penrith City’s “Citizen of the Year” for 2007. mm ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/17 "2007-05-10T14:45:23Z")
Rugby Union keeps mucking about with the scrum rules in an attempt to reduce spinal injuries - the most recent change being to the engagement (when the scrums come together). There actually seems to be a bit of a code among the front rowers - something that they use to signal difficulties. I read an interview with an Aussie rugby international who gave credit to his opposite number in the scrum during a scare - the Aussie strained his neck and trapped a nerve during a scrum (causing temporary paralysis and a **crack** in the neck), yelled something - and his All Black oppo stopped pushing, yelled to stop the scrum, and held the guy in position till the collar was on. All was well in the end, but scrums can be rough. And I seem to recall a Namibian player breaking his neck at a Rugby World Cup match - I guess in 1999. Si ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/18 "2007-05-10T15:47:33Z")
If bull riding counts, there have been quite a few, such as [Jerome Davis](http://www.jeromedavis.com/meet_jerome.asp). ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/19 "2007-05-10T15:53:26Z")
[Ray Chapman](http://z.lee28.tripod.com/sbnsforgottenintime/id5.html) was killed due to an on-field baseball injury. ---
**Author:** ![happywaffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ee59a6/32.png) [@happywaffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happywaffle)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500/20 "2007-05-10T16:01:21Z")
Used to be a lot worse; the NCAA was founded because of a tremendous number of injuries on college fields. In 1905 alone, 18 college football players _died_, even though there were only a fraction as many actually playing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-athlete-ever-been-paralyzed-from-an-in-game-injury/403500.md?page=2)