The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-11-18
FOOTBALL PLAYERS KILLED
Sixteen Crushed to Death at indiana
apoIis in a Collision.
PURDUE'S ELEVEN DECIMATED

Purdue University Special Hits Switch
Engine Head-on-Seren Players, Two
Assistant Coaches and a Trainer Killed
Outright - Fifty Persons Hurt - Tho
Game Abandoned and Team Disbandcd
indianapolis. Ind.-Running at the
rate of thirty miles IN hour, a Big Four
special train of six coaches, loaded
with students Of Purdue University,
including the football team, was
wrecked just inside the city limits
by coming into collision with a switch
engine hauling train of coal cars. Fif-
teen persons were killed outright and
fifty were injured, some Of them so
seriously that there is no hope Of their
recovery.
There were 9J4 students and specta-
tors Oh the train, and the football team.
which was scheduled for q game with
the Indiana University team here, was
in the forward car. and four players,
three substitute players, two assistant
outright, and five members Of the team
were seriously and several slightly
injured. The train was q special, made
up at Lafayette, and, with few excep-
tons. all the passengers were Purdue
students.
Many of those killed and severely in
jured were among the best men on the
team, and there will be no effort to re-
organize it this year. The Indiana
University team came in few minutes
after the wreck occurred and assisted
in the work of rescue and in caring
for the injured. President Stone, Of
Purdue, was OH the train, but was not
injured.
The trains came together with
great crash. which wrecked three Of
the passenger coaches, in addition to
the engine and tender Of the special
train and two or three of the coal cars.
The first coach on the special train was
reduced to splinters.
The second coach was thrown down
q ffteen-foot embankment into the
gravel pit, and the third coach was
thrown from the track to the west side
and badly wrecked. The coal cars
plowed their way into the engine and
demolished it completely. The coal
tender was tossed to the side and
turned over.
A wild effort on the part of the
imprisoned passengers to escape from
the wrecked car followed the crash.
Immediately following the wreck the
students and the others turned their at.
tention to the work OF rescuing the in.
iured, and by the time the first am.
balances arrived many Of the dead and
suffering young men had been carried
out and placed on the grass Oh both
sides of the track.
The dead were removed last Sew.
eral wagons belonging to teamsters llv-
ing in the neighborhood were pressed
into service and the dead were carried
away as fast as they could be taken
from the wreck.
Many of the bodies were so manSled
that they could be identified only by
letters and other paper in the clothing
The cause of the accident has not been
explained. The engineers of both
trains say they had the right Of way
and were proceeding without knowl.
edge that another train was on the
track. There is a sharp curve where
the wreck occurred. and many freight
cars were standing on the side tracks,
obscuring the view.
The following were taken from the
wreck dead: W. H. CRUDE. substitute
player, Butler, Ind; Walter Furr, men,
ber of the team: E. C. Robertson. as
sistant coach; Walter Roush, substi-
tute, Pittsburg: r. J. Powell, Corpus
Christi, Texas; W. D. Hamilton, centre
rush, Lafayette; Walter Robertson; Ca
brlel S. Drollinger. beheaded; Sam
Suuibb, Lafayette; Jay Hamilton. sub
stitute player. Huntington. Ind; n. 4.
Howard. Lafayette; Patrick McClair.
assistant coach. Chicago:. Samuel
Truitt, player. Noblesville; G. L. Shaw,
Lafayette; W. S. McMillon, 1ndianap'
oils.
William Bailey. OF New Richmond,
Ind, substitute player on the Purdue
University football team. died on the
afternoon after the accident from In
ternal injuries received in the Big -Four
wreck. This is the sixteenth death. =.
Boston. Mass.-Cutts, the footbali
coach, injured in the train wreck near
Indianapolis, is Oliver Cults. the Har-
ward player about whom there was
such fuss two years ago.