Oregon Public Broadcasting

Students and faculty at Eastern Oregon University are mourning the death of  21 year old football player Dylan Steigers. Stiegers died Sunday, one day after suffering a concussion during a scrimmage in La Grande.  OPB's David Nogueras reports from Bend.

According to University officials, Steigers was hit on the back of the helmet while making a routine tackle toward the end of the game. He took himself out of the game, but later vomited on the sidelines.

That's a red flag for a concussion.

EOU President, Bob Davies says Steigers was a good kid and someone the community was proud of. Davies says the school has begun a review of what happened, but preliminary findings suggest that coaches and staff did what they were supposed to do.

Bob Davies: "When we look at our protocols when we look at what we do, everything was followed.  One of the doctors mentioned to our head coach this was one of those one-in-a-million situations.  There's nothing that could have been done to prevent it."

The Sports Concussion Institute reports that 4 million people suffer sports and recreation related concussions in the US each year.  The majority of those go undiagnosed.