Columnist Steve Guiremand: Scary incidents show real meaning of ‘life or death’

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Oct. 27, 2000 | 12:10 p.m.

Steve Guiremand covers college football for the Sun. His Around Campus column appears Fridays during football season.

With marquee games like Saturday's Oklahoma-Nebraska matchup and next weekend's Miami-Virginia Tech and Clemson-Florida State contests on the horizon, there is no better time to be a college football fan.

Those games may be "life or death" games for the teams involved when it comes to the BCS standings and a possible trip to the Jan. 3 national championship game in Miami.

But a couple of incidents that occurred off the field this past week put the importance of those, and all college games for that matter, in perspective.

The first involved Arizona State's football team and its frightening plane flight home after last Saturday's 23-20 overtime win at Washington State.

About 60 miles outside of Phoenix, the team plane was struck by lightning not once but twice, knocking out the cabin lights and jarring the plane badly.

"Some people were saying I hope it happens fast," Sun Devil coach Bruce Snyder said. "I grabbed my wife's hand and said, 'OK, they may be writing about us.' "

Fortunately, the Sun Devils were able to make it back to Phoenix. After landing, the pilot discovered the lightning had produced a hole in the plane's tail.

"I think we all started looking at ourselves a bit differently," Snyder said. "And that overtime win wasn't nearly as significant as it was earlier."

Then on Monday came the news that San Jose State sophomore Neil Parry, brother of Spartan star linebacker Josh Parry, had to have his right foot and part of his leg amputated as a result of a compound fracture suffered a week earlier on a special teams play against UTEP.

The play was so gruesome that Spartan coach Dave Baldwin cut it out of game films.

"I had never seen anything like that in my life and I never want to see it again," Baldwin said.

Parry underwent two surgeries to repair his fibula and tibia at Stanford Hospital, but a serious infection eventually developed, forcing the amputation.

"Neil's teammates have prayed for him every day after practice," Baldwin said. "I was amazed by his attitude. I've never seen him cry about this."

This should have been a very upbeat time for the Spartans (5-3, 3-1). They travel to Hawaii this weekend and need to win just two of their final four games to enjoy their first winning season since 1992.

But the stunning news of Parry's amputation has obviously cast a pall over anything the Spartans have accomplished on the field so far.

It also makes you realize that no matter how important a game is to the BCS standings or a conference race, it really isn't life or death.

Just ask Bruce Snyder. Or Neil Parry.

Once around the nation

Once around the MWC