A traumatic brain injury and a brain bleed are being blamed for the death of Southern Nazarene University football player Tyler Ulrich, who passed five days after a brutal helmet-to-helmet collision on October 10.
According to a coroner’s report obtained by ESPN, Ulrich suffered a ‘subdural hematoma,’ in which blood collects between layers of the brain.
The school’s original press release on his passing described Ulrich’s cause of death as a ‘traumatic brain injury,’ but did not offer more details at the time.
The school has not reviewed the coroner’s report, as a spokesperson told ESPN.
‘Our university president, football team and coaches participated in a Celebration of Life service for Tyler last Sunday afternoon in Azle, Texas,’ read the statement. ‘The report you mentioned has not been provided to us. Our campus community is faithfully remembering his family, teammates and coaches in our prayers.’
Ulrich went down following a group tackle during an away game at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas. Paramedics treated him on the field for an hour before taking Ulrich to a nearby hospital.
Southern Nazarene star Tyler Ulrich died at 21 – five days after suffering a ‘traumatic injury’
SNU held a campuswide prayer chapel in honor of Ulrich, who was from Azle, Texas
‘There was nothing in the run of that play that made you go, ‘Oh man, that looked horrible,” Dave Myrick, the team’s radio play-by-play announcer, told ESPN. ‘Just a normal football play. And while I’m saying we got a player down, I see our players’ reaction to what they see, and that is when it kind of changed the tide, you know, in my tone. They were jumping up and down yelling for our medical staff to come on the field.’
Ulrich is the second football player to die from a traumatic brain injury in the last nine years, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research. In August, William Jewell College running back MicahJo Barnett collapsed on the sideline and later died. The school has not released an official cause of death.
Although Southern Nazarene finished their game with Ouachita Baptist, their following game was canceled by the school.
‘Tyler was an outstanding football player and a tremendous man of faith,’ head coach Dustin Hada told ESPN. ‘He was a great example of quiet strength and a leader in our locker room for sure.’
Tyler’s death was revealed by his father, Mark, on social media.
‘Our family is truly blessed to receive all the love and prayers for our young Tyler, and we are ever grateful,’ Mark Ulrich wrote on Facebook.
‘But as much support and love that was given, it is with a heavy heart I am writing to say the Lord called Tyler this morning at 11:13am.
‘Tyler will join many of our loved ones that have passed. Tyler led a life full of faith, passion and being a BEAST on the football field!!! He will be remembered always.’
‘It is with a heavy heart I am writing to say the Lord called Tyler this morning,’ his family wrote
Tributes also poured in from the Division II school.
‘It is with heavy hearts that we share the loss of our SNU football player, Tyler Ulrich,’ the SNU Athletics said in a post on X.
‘This loss is deeply felt across our campus. Our hearts are with his family, friends, teammates, and everyone who knew him,’ the post read. ‘We ask that you join us in lifting them up in prayer.’
Hada, meanwhile, posted: ‘Man of God, ultimate example of quiet strength, loyal, worker, joyous. That’s who Tyler was!!’
School President Keith Newman issued a statement saying Ulrich died in the hospital ‘surrounded by the love, prayers, and presence of his family, teammates and dear friends.’
SNU held a campuswide prayer chapel in honor of Ulrich, who was from Azle, Texas, and in his third season at SNU.
