Husky Alum
July 13th, 2005, 09:10 AM
From this morning's New Haven Register.... Terrible tragedy for someone who had a key role in a big Yale win over Haaaahvaaaaaaaahd. This is unforunately another death for a Yale athlete - the athletic department at Yale appears to be snakebitten.
-----
The Yale athletic family has suffered another tragic loss. Ryan LoProto, an All-Ivy League safety for the football team in 2001, drowned Saturday after falling off a bridge in Pamplona, Spain.
LoProto, 24, is the sixth person with ties to Yale’s athletic department to suffer a tragic death since January 2003.
"It’s inexplicable," Yale football coach Jack Siedlecki said.
Mike LoProto, Ryan’s father, told the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Spanish authorities told the family LoProto fell 120 feet into the Arga River and suffered skull injuries before drowning. The investigation has been closed and authorities have ruled out foul play.
But the LoProto family, which lives in Marrero, La., has also heard that Ryan fell 20-30 feet off a cliff and has received information on Ryan’s death in a slow manner.
"It’s their jurisdiction, so we don’t know much," Mike LoProto said. "I don’t know what is going on. I do want to know." An unidentified woman from Valencia, Spain, also drowned in the incident. Details of her death have not been released.
LaProto, a law student at Louisiana State University studying in Lyon, France, was in Spain for the Running of the Bulls with about 10 of his friends.
Mike LoProto told the Times-Picayune he would fly to Spain this weekend to return with the body. Funeral arrangements are pending.
"He was just a high-energy kid with all the potential in the world ahead of him," Siedlecki said. "It just drives you nuts." LoProto was an energetic and enthusiastic player for the Bulldogs, making 190 tackles in his career, including 129 solo.
"He was as high-energy and intense a player as you’ll see," Siedlecki said. "He really loved to play the game." He had seven career interceptions, including a game-saving one in the end zone as time expired against Harvard.
LoProto, then a sophomore, stepped in front of a Brad Wilford pass. Many remember "The Catch" from Eric Johnson 29 seconds earlier, but it was LoProto’s interception that
See LoProto, D3
sealed the Bulldogs’ first Ivy League title in 10 years.
"After the interception, my dad came running out onto the field. I still had the ball and I gave it to him, and as I gave it to him 500 people piled onto my head — it was the worst pain I have ever felt," LoProto told the Yale Sports Publicity department for an Ivy League article in 2001. "My dad took the ball like a handoff and ran out of the crowd because he didn’t want to lose the ball." The following year, LoProto intercepted a Neil Rose pass that led to a go-ahead field goal in Yale’s 34-24 win at Harvard.
LoProto also had an interception on his first varsity series as a freshman and set a Yale single-game record by returning two interceptions for touchdowns (67 and 17 yards) against Columbia as a junior. He was selected Yale’s rookie of the year as a freshman and an Academic All-America selection as a senior.
LoProto’s death is the latest tragedy in what has been a difficult 31-month period.
On Jan. 17, 2003, nine Yale students were involved in an early-morning accident on I-95, slamming into a tractor trailer. Eight of the nine involved had ties to Yale athletics, including three of the four that died: baseball players Nicholas Grass and Kyle Burnat, and Sean Fenton, who played football as a freshman. Andrew Dwyer, the fourth person killed in the accident, was close friends with several student-athletes.
James Keppel, a 2002 Yale graduate and an All-Ivy fullback, died May 9, 2003 at age 23 of an apparent heart attack.
Josh Hill, a member of the Yale men’s basketball team, died in a single-car accident May 27, 2004. He was 22.
-----
The Yale athletic family has suffered another tragic loss. Ryan LoProto, an All-Ivy League safety for the football team in 2001, drowned Saturday after falling off a bridge in Pamplona, Spain.
LoProto, 24, is the sixth person with ties to Yale’s athletic department to suffer a tragic death since January 2003.
"It’s inexplicable," Yale football coach Jack Siedlecki said.
Mike LoProto, Ryan’s father, told the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Spanish authorities told the family LoProto fell 120 feet into the Arga River and suffered skull injuries before drowning. The investigation has been closed and authorities have ruled out foul play.
But the LoProto family, which lives in Marrero, La., has also heard that Ryan fell 20-30 feet off a cliff and has received information on Ryan’s death in a slow manner.
"It’s their jurisdiction, so we don’t know much," Mike LoProto said. "I don’t know what is going on. I do want to know." An unidentified woman from Valencia, Spain, also drowned in the incident. Details of her death have not been released.
LaProto, a law student at Louisiana State University studying in Lyon, France, was in Spain for the Running of the Bulls with about 10 of his friends.
Mike LoProto told the Times-Picayune he would fly to Spain this weekend to return with the body. Funeral arrangements are pending.
"He was just a high-energy kid with all the potential in the world ahead of him," Siedlecki said. "It just drives you nuts." LoProto was an energetic and enthusiastic player for the Bulldogs, making 190 tackles in his career, including 129 solo.
"He was as high-energy and intense a player as you’ll see," Siedlecki said. "He really loved to play the game." He had seven career interceptions, including a game-saving one in the end zone as time expired against Harvard.
LoProto, then a sophomore, stepped in front of a Brad Wilford pass. Many remember "The Catch" from Eric Johnson 29 seconds earlier, but it was LoProto’s interception that
See LoProto, D3
sealed the Bulldogs’ first Ivy League title in 10 years.
"After the interception, my dad came running out onto the field. I still had the ball and I gave it to him, and as I gave it to him 500 people piled onto my head — it was the worst pain I have ever felt," LoProto told the Yale Sports Publicity department for an Ivy League article in 2001. "My dad took the ball like a handoff and ran out of the crowd because he didn’t want to lose the ball." The following year, LoProto intercepted a Neil Rose pass that led to a go-ahead field goal in Yale’s 34-24 win at Harvard.
LoProto also had an interception on his first varsity series as a freshman and set a Yale single-game record by returning two interceptions for touchdowns (67 and 17 yards) against Columbia as a junior. He was selected Yale’s rookie of the year as a freshman and an Academic All-America selection as a senior.
LoProto’s death is the latest tragedy in what has been a difficult 31-month period.
On Jan. 17, 2003, nine Yale students were involved in an early-morning accident on I-95, slamming into a tractor trailer. Eight of the nine involved had ties to Yale athletics, including three of the four that died: baseball players Nicholas Grass and Kyle Burnat, and Sean Fenton, who played football as a freshman. Andrew Dwyer, the fourth person killed in the accident, was close friends with several student-athletes.
James Keppel, a 2002 Yale graduate and an All-Ivy fullback, died May 9, 2003 at age 23 of an apparent heart attack.
Josh Hill, a member of the Yale men’s basketball team, died in a single-car accident May 27, 2004. He was 22.