Evening star., 1947-02-25
81 Rows Of Seats Fall
With Cheering Fans;
Game Is Called Off
BY The Assoeioied Press

LAFAYETTE, Ind, Feb. 25.-
Purdue University today counted
two dead and about 200 injured in
the third major tragedy of its sports
history-a collapse of new wooden
bleachers at the end of the first
half of a Western Conference bas-
ket ball game with Wisconsin last
night.
DR.. w. T. Cox, Tippecanoe Coun-
ty coroner, identified two dead stu
dents as Roger Genhausen, "a, of
Garret, Ind, q freshman Navy
veteran killed instantly, and William
j. Feldman, 20, student from East
Chicago, Ind, who died of a skull
fracture in st. Elizabeth's Hospital.
The accident came as about $500
spectators in bleachers on the east
end of the floor jumped and yelled
in tribute to Purdue's team, which
had gained 34-to-33 lead over the
Badgers just before the half ended
The 62 rows of seats in the 100.
foot-long structure sagged to the
dirt floor before players reached
the dressing rooms.
There was no panic. The hun
dTeds of occupants of the bleach
ers, some Of whom had tum-
bled as high as 80 feet, limped or
crawled through the crowd to seek
medical attention.
cL.-- ~,
The splintering of huge support
ing beams gave out sharp cracking
noises, and within space of a
few minutes the entire structure
had been leveled. AS the first
screams of the injured were heard
a panic among the huge crowd
threatened, but athletic officials ap-
pealed for order and quiet and
asked uninjured persons not help
ing the injured to leave the building
as quickly as possible. An orderly
movement toward the exits fol-
lowed.
officials quickly mobilized crews
of students, many of them war
veterans with experience in han
ding wounded. The students i'm
provised stretchers by using plank
ing from the collapsed bleacher and
carried scores of persons to the
feldhouse doors.
A passing Greyhound bus was
utilized as an ambulance and took
about As persons to hospital. All
of the city's ambulances were sum-
moned and for nearly two hours
took the injured to the city's two
hospitals.
Haunting Experience.
Members of two honorary societies,
the Gimlets and Reamers, were
serving as ushers and helped pull
out spectators trapped between
splintered planks.
Haynes Sleeth, principal of Roose-
velt Junior High School in sKokomo,
seated across the floor from the
collapsed bleachers, said, "It was an
experience that will haunt me all
the rest of my life. The screams
coming from crumpled debris, and
the sight of hands rising out of
splintered bleachers for some sort
of support that wasn't there, was
horrible.
IT was seated on the west side, ex-
actly opposite the bleachers that
collapsed" Sleeth related. II had
just remarked to some friends how
attractive the bleachers looked. Just
then the bleachers started to slide,
slowly at first, then with an increas-
ing rush which ended with a crunch
ing thud. The crowd which was not
caught was frozen with horror
Then came the screams.
''It seemed like the center section
collapsed first and the sides caved
in on top"
Betty 10 Robertson, II, of India
napolis, sitting in the collapsed
bleachers but uninjured, said, 81
could see legs bent in strange posi-
tions and I knew they we're broken
People were crying in pain"
Stands Erected Recently.
The bleacher section that failed
was one Of two recently erected at
either end of the floor to increase
the seating capacity from 5000 to
about 1850. The feldhouse was
filled to capacity but the crowd fol-
lowed officials directions to stay in
their seats until told P leave.
There was no thought of resuming
the game. Kenneth L. (Tug) Will
son, Western Conference cofnmis-
sioner, said in Chicago he would
confer with Purdue and Wisconsin
about rescheduling the game.
Twenty Purdue football players
were killed in 1903 in the wreck of
special train taking them to Indian
apolis for a game with Indiana
University. A gasoline explosion in
a dressing room killed football stars
Carl Edward Dahlbeck of Lyndon