This morning, the first email i read was the following from my friend and former dorm-mate, Michael McAllister, in what i thought was going to be his usual pre-game breifing. Please keep Declan, his family, and the entire Notre Dame community in your prayers.

Yesterday, the Notre Dame community was stunned and grief-stricken at the death of 20-year-old junior Declan Sullivan.  Sullivan, a native of the Chicago area, served as a video coordinator for the athletic department.  During the football team’s outdoor practice yesterday, held in winds that gusted above 50 miles per hour, Sullivan was killed when the tower he stood on was blown over by the wind.

 This weekend, several traditional aspects of the football weekend will be suspended in honor of Sullivan.  Some discussion in the hours following the student’s death centered on the university potentially postponing or canceling this weekend’s game.  ND last postponed a game the weekend immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when the Purdue game was moved to the end of the season.  ND has not canceled a game outright since its November 23, 1963 game at Iowa was canceled in the wake of the assassination of President John Kennedy.

Declan Sullivan, 20, Notre Dame Junior

Sviluppo (Update): On 21 November, Fr. Richard Warner, new Father General of the Congregation of Holy Cross presided at a memorial mass for Declan in Rome, at Santa Maria in Monterone with about 30 ND students and alumni celebrating.