By Kyle Ringo
The Colorado Daily
BOULDER, Colo. — Five Colorado athletes are drawing praise from CU police Cmdr. Tim McGraw after coming to the aid of a seriously injured cyclist Aug. 9 just down the hill from the Dal Ward Center.
Becah Fogle, a sophomore from the volleyball team, along with Cody Hawkins, Scotty McKnight, Kyle Cefalo and Aric Goodman from the football team spotted the injured man shortly after 10 p.m. as they passed by in cars.
The football players were returning to the Dal Ward Center after a late-night walk-through on the practice fields when they saw a fellow CU student identified in police reports as Jacob Dana face down and motionless on the pavement outside the northeast gates to Folsom Field.
“We got out and the guy was still clipped into his bike on the ground completely unconscious,” Hawkins said. “He had blood coming out of his nose. His hair was scraped on the ground. His back tire was completely bent and his water bottle and sunglasses were on the ground probably about 20 feet apart.”
Fogle called 911 on her cell phone and Cefalo ran up the hill to the Dal Ward Center to find head athletic trainer Miguel Rueda, who sprinted back down the hill to help Dana until paramedics arrived. Hawkins and McKnight said Dana was making snoring sounds with a lot of blood around him and blood coming from his nose.
McKnight said they were careful not to move him but tried to comfort him and talk to him while waiting for help to arrive. Police and paramedics arrived and transported Dana to a local hospital. He was not wearing a helmet, according to McGraw.
“The good news is this student who had the accident is going to be able to come back to school,” McGraw said. “It may be a little bit of a recovery period, but in speaking with his father, it sounds like he is going to recover enough. It may not be this semester.”
McGraw said he chose to send a letter to athletic director Mike Bohn and football coach Dan Hawkins this week, praising the student-athletes for their willingness to help.
“It’s definitely safe to say that because of their actions, they minimized the injuries to this guy, in as far as doing the things they did in expediently getting care to him,” McGraw said. “They stopped a bad situation from going into a horrific situation.”
Goodman said he, his teammates and Fogle were only doing what anyone would have done in the same situation.
“We didn’t do anything extraordinary,” Goodman said. “We were just driving up there and happened to come across him. You know, you’re not just going to let somebody lie there.”
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