As of mid-day Monday, 2,400 people had signed a petition to name Warren Hills Regional High School’s football field after Evan Murray, who died Friday after taking several hits during a game against Summit there.
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Murray, a senior, was tackled in the backfield in the second quarter of a home game against Summit.
A high school football player from Warren County, New Jersey died Friday night after he was injured on the field, the school district superintendent said.
Some of Murray’s teammates said it wasn’t clear whether the last hit he took caused his death.
Bowen declined to take questions from reporters, saying a cause of death has not yet been determined.
He died shortly after the game and an autopsy was performed Saturday.
Members of the school community said they were shocked by Murray’s death. Murray’s funeral will be October 1 at 11 a.m., also at the church. “He tried giving a thumbs-up to the rest of the team, and all of us cheered”, Kaitlyn Bell said, according to NY Daily News. “Our coach was telling us he was going to be all right”.
Classmate and friend Taylor Coughlin, a junior who appears to have set up a GoFundMe page to assist the family, told NJ.com that Murray was an “amazing kid”.
“It’s a tragedy and our heartfelt condolences to the family and the whole Warren Hills community”, NJSIAA spokesman Michael Cherenson said on behalf of the statewide athletics association in reaction to Murray’s passing.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the New York Jets tweeted their support for the Murray family. She said he was “an unbelievable student and an fantastic athlete”.According to the University of North Carolina’s National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, which Dr. Frederick Mueller, a Woodbridge High School graduate, directed from 1982 through 2013, 77 high school football players have died nationwide as the result of injuries directly related to the game in the past two decades.
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Murray’s wake will be held Wednesday at Safe Discovery Church in Washington Township.
