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.Thanks to the Charlotte Observer for the story: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/story/163718.htmlProblem 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.
Evidently, 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. 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.”
To review:
Duke
and UNC:
1 comment:
Obviously that picture of Wallace Wade is from 100 million years ago when we actually packed the stadium...
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