A McCormick junior died early Sunday due to a pre-existing heart condition after rushing the football field to celebrate the Northwestern football team’s victory over Ohio State.
Frederick Lieb, 20, nicknamed Rick, from Crestview, Fla., was pronounced dead at Evanston Hospital at 12:35 a.m., police said.
According to a statement released by the Evanston Police Department on Sunday, Lieb collapsed shortly before midnight in the northwest corner of the stadium after running down from the upper deck of Ryan Field.
Lieb, who had a pacemaker, complained to a friend that he felt short of breath immediately before he collapsed, according to statements from the university and EPD. He received CPR from security personnel and a doctor at the stadium before he was taken to Evanston Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Lieb, a chemical engineering major, died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease, said an official from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
“Our condolences and deepest sympathies go to Rick’s family and his friends,” University President Henry Bienen said in a statement. “It saddens all of us greatly when we lose a member of the Northwestern community, and particularly so in these circumstances.”
University officials and counselors met Sunday afternoon with Lieb’s friends and members of Foster House, the residence hall where he lived. Plans for a campus memorial service will be announced in the coming days, NU officials said in a statement.
Foster House President Vivek Kumar said the dorm cancelled an upcoming event because of Lieb’s death.
“We’re all surprised and sad by what happened,” said Kumar, a McCormick sophomore who lives on the same floor as Lieb.
Francis J. Klocke, director of NU’s Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute, said hypertensive cardiovascular disease usually occurs in adults who have a history of high blood pressure.
Klocke said both the disease and high blood pressure are “uncommon” in people of Lieb’s age. In younger people, high blood pressure usually results from some other condition, whereas in older adults it is usually considered a primary condition.
The student section emptied onto Ryan Field Saturday night after NU’s football team defeated Ohio State in overtime 33-27 — NU’s first victory over the Buckeyes since 1971.
The number of students attending the game was not available Sunday, but some students said they were denied admission because the game was sold out.
“It was a really wonderful evening and a great football game and to have something like this happen at the end of it like this is a real loss,” said Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations. “Northwestern students are remarkably bright and good students and and clearly have a lot to give yet in their lives, so to lose one at an age like this is a very, very unhappy circumstance.”
The Daily’s Scott Gordon contributed to this report.
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