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When West Point Football Turned Fatal

Bad Legacy

On this day 105 years ago, a West Point player died in a game with Harvard. Similarities between that tragedy and injuries today prove that not much has changed in a century.

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On Oct. 30, 1909, in a football game between Army and Harvard, Army’s left tackle Eugene Byrne died trying to stop a running play that ended with him at the bottom of a pileup.

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