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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- A Brigham Young University student has died of injuries suffered during a pickup football game on campus.
Steven Michael Lynes, 19, a freshman from Glenwood, Iowa, hit his head on the ground on the field outside Deseret Towers during the game Saturday afternoon, BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said.
He died Monday night.
Lynes was living at Deseret Towers, where he frequently played football games with friends who attended the same ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Val Peterson, bishop of the student congregation.
Students in the church group had staged a game earlier in the day but when it was over, another group of players asked Lynes to join them for a game of tackle football, Peterson said.
The players in the pickup game were not wearing protective gear.
Lynes loved football, said his uncle, Alan Jankiewicz. "I think if Steven could have picked a way to go it would have been with a football in his hands."
Lynes started at the quarterback position for three years at Glenwood High School in Iowa, and he was playing that position during the game on Saturday.
"He was running with the ball and from what I understand he broke a couple tackles and some guy just got him the right way and spun him around and he hit his head," Jankiewicz said. "They said the field was as hard as a rock."
Lynes walked off the field but was groggy and had a hard time speaking as he told friends he wasn't feeling well before he passed out.
"The emergency team was there in just a few minutes, Jankiewicz said. "They did a great job of getting there real quick, but from what I understand, he was unconscious and never woke up. The doctors put him under heavy sedation. They didn't want him to wake up because there was a lot of pressure on his brain."
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
