August 23, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, when a stadium full of excited sports fans pressed downhill against poor crowd control, tragedy mounted terribly in a moment. Hear from Michael Brin, then a player on the field and now an emergency physician, about a harrowing ordeal and its aftermath.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. In nineteen ninety two,
Michael Brynn was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin
in Madison. He earned a spot as a walk on
to the University of Wisconsin football team. Midway through the
nineteen ninety three season, as the Badgers were starting to
demonstrate just how good a program they'd become, an epic
(00:32):
game was played at Camp Randall the Wisconsin Holmes Stadium.
Here is doctor Michael Brynn himself to tell us the
story of what is known in Wisconsin as the Camp
Randall Stampede.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
It's nineteen ninety three. I was a pre med student
who was given a chance to walk on to play
for the University of Wisconsin Badger's football team. We had
come off the disappointing year in nineteen ninety two, but
that nineteen ninety three team was different. We started hot.
We knew that we had the chance to reach all
the goals that we had set before us in the
beginning of the year, and that was to win the
(01:06):
Big Ten and get to the Rose Bowl. We've always
had some of the craziest, rowdiest, most loyal fans anywhere
in the country, let alone the Big Ten our test.
The next obstacle that we had in our way to
prove that we were the real deal was the University
of Michigan Wolverines. Michigan was the perennial powerhouse in the
Big Ten, getting to the Rose Bowl the year before
(01:27):
winning the Big Ten. They were in our way. The
game comes and we're ready for it, and this is
the place they called the camp. Everybody on that team, offense, defense,
special teams, we were clicking. It was probably one of
the most exciting games I've ever been a part of.
I still remember Terrell Fletcher making a little cut in
the backfield and scoring a long touchdown really put us
(01:49):
ahead for the end of the game. You talk took
to the backfield, he break the back of a good
ten What drigs quick At the end, Michigan now has
the ball. The game's coming down to the last minute.
They have a chance to come back and do something,
but now it's our defense is turned to make the stand.
The clock is ticking and then finally a.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Sat managers take over.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Clock ticks down and at the end you look up
and you see Wisconsin victorious and the Inmates are set
to take over campers Day. We have now slain the giant.
Everybody celebrated, so now the students want to charge the
field and they want to jump onto the field with
us to celebrate the end of the game. We go
through a tunnel that's right through our student section. As
(02:33):
we're walking up to our tunnel, something is wrong. We
realized some lives might be in danger. The police were
initially told don't let the students in. Don't let the
students in. So now the people at the top of
the student section don't know that. They can't hear that,
so they're pushing down. They want to get down onto
the field to celebrate as quickly as possible. Thick metal
railings were the only thing that really stood between the
(02:53):
student section and getting onto the field, and now it
becomes a wave of humanity. Now the the sheer weight
of all these students trying to come down. Unfortunately, when
that happens, the people at the bottom, they don't have
time to get out. Wave after wave of people. They're
piling onto each other because the people at the top
don't know what's going on at the bottom, and the
(03:14):
people at the bottom can't move and they are stuck
under five ten, twenty one hundred a thousand people. All
of a sudden, right in front of me, I see
two of my teammates, John Hall and Brent Moss picking
one of our students. They're picking her over a fence
because she was pinned against the fence and she couldn't
(03:34):
get out. And she looked at them and said, I
can't bring So I grabbed her leg and helped her over,
and Brent and John go and they start helping somebody else,
and she looks up at me and she says thank you,
thank you. When I look at her and I say,
get out of here, get to the tunnel, get safe,
get somewhere safe. I was great friends with two girls,
Jen and Marcy. I knew where they sat. All of
(03:56):
a sudden, I realized that they could be in trouble.
I climb up the tunnel wall to the other side
of the stands where I knew that Jenn and Marci
were sitting. As I climb over the wall, it was
just bodies. There were people everywhere. We need help. This
is a life and death situation. I looked down and
I could see a young girl. Her face was blue purple,
(04:20):
and it didn't look like she was breathing. What was
laying in front of me was someone who I thought
was dead. I jumped right next to her. I wait
to see if she's breathing. I wait to see if
there's blinking, if there's anything there wasn't. I knew the
basics of CPR, and the first one was airway, so
I started the mouth's mouth. I brought my head down
towards her, and we got a couple of breaths, and
(04:40):
it looked like it started stimulating some breathing. At that point,
we started seeing some movement in her chest wall, a
little flicker of a light that was starting. There were
a couple other people that were there, saying what can
we do? What ca we do? They were trying to help.
They were holding her hand, they were talking to her.
There's nothing more for.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Me to do.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
They're helping her. And I look down towards the field
and I'm probably about fifteen twenty rows up. As I
look down, I see some of my teammates still in
their pads, still in their uniform are offensive lineman Joe Panels,
Brian Patterson, Tyler Adams, Joe Rudolph, and our team dentist
George Warren. They're dragging them out of those bottom rows
(05:18):
where they were just laying and strewn on the ground.
All of a sudden, I hear one of our equipment managers,
yell Over, said, hey, Brand, we got to get back
in the locker room. Get into the locker room. Grabs
my helmet and we start going in that there are
and what says here to people are heading your way.
And as I walk into the locker room, can't really
(05:40):
comprehend the fact that I think I just saw someone
die in front of me. Now the only thing is
what happened to them? Did I do enough? The focus
was now on the students. It was now on what
just happened and what else can we do? I see
Joe Rudolph, you know, one of our starting offensive linement,
(06:01):
had buried in his lap in tears, and nobody knew
what to do with this. We just beat Michigan, and
yet in a moment, it didn't matter. The only thing
that mattered was our friends, was our fellow students, was
a University of Wisconsin, was that community that meant so
much to us. After the game, I made sure that
(06:22):
my friends Jenn and Marcy were okay. You know, I
call them up, and you know, I find out they're fine.
They got out quickly. They were actually on the field. Thankfully,
my friends weren't involved. Who else was involved? What else
was going on? Our Sunday is typically a day to
work out, loosen our legs after the game, and I
get called emergently back into our offices, so they bring
(06:42):
me out. The word got out that first girl, Amey,
who was pulled over the fence. She reached out and said, hey,
number three helped me. My story then now takes off.
How does a football player know how to do CPO?
Than fully? I became a focus, and I say thankfully
(07:03):
because we still had football to play. We had Ohio
State that next week. I become the focus because I'm
not going to get on the field against Ohio State.
I was a scout team player, so I can take
some of that focus away from my team and let
them get back to what they need to focus on.
But it wasn't going to happen until we knew what
happened with these students, what happened with our friends. Coach
(07:24):
Elverrez brought a whole bunch of people in to give
us an update on everybody and they had told us
that eleven people went to the hospital and critical condition,
but nobody had died. And when they said that, and
when we all heard that, sitting together, a weight lifted
from our shoulders, A weightlifted saying all right, I didn't
have to do anything more. I did what I could.
(07:47):
My friends, our community, They're going to be okay. I
was informed of where a couple of these critical patients went.
I went out and I got a single flock, I
got a rose, and I went to the hospital around
the corner where I knew some of these patients were.
And I went to the front desk and I introduced
myself and I said, hey, I'm on the team. I
(08:09):
know that some of these victims came here. You don't
have to give me any info, but I just want
to give someone this flower, just to let them know
that we're still thinking about them. I'll never forget the
person looked at me and said, they're gone, They're all home,
nobody's left. I've never felt happier. The last person had
(08:32):
been discharged the day before. Everybody was home. The understanding
that everybody who was so amazing for us, that gave
us that spirit, that gave us that will to push
forward when nobody else believed in us they were going
to be okay, the team pressed on, we won the
(08:52):
Big Ten. We knew what we needed to do when
we got to that Rose Bowl, but our job wasn't done.
So now we had that next step and we get
to the Rose Bowl and at the end of the
year we came out on top. That ninety three season
will be remembered for so many reasons. It'll be remembered
(09:15):
for who we were, accomplishing more than anybody thought we
could by coming together as a group, and by loving
each other and playing for each other and trusting each
other as much as we did. And it'll be remembered
for heroism. It'll be known for a group of people
that came together to try to help each other at
a moment of need, and nobody backed off, nobody flinched.
(09:39):
My little role on the University Wisconsin football team, as
small as it may have been, I think I'm one
of the luckiest people in the world to have gone
through something like this, not alone, but together as a group,
and to look back with pride, pride in that we
showed our love, we showed our caring, We showed our will,
(10:02):
and we showed that we won't flinch, and we showed
the will of a group of people that truly believed
in each other and part of a community that is
thriving now.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And a terrific job by the production editing and storytelling
by one of our regular contributors, John Elfner, who's a
high school history teacher in Illinois. By the way, if
you teach history, even if you don't, We love our
listener contributions. We have all kinds of folks out there
who know their towns, know their family's story, and know
America's story. Send them to our American stories dot com.
(10:36):
The story of the Camp Randall's stampede here on our
American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. In nineteen ninety two,
Michael Brynn was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin
in Madison. He earned a spot as a walk on
to the University of Wisconsin football team. Midway through the
nineteen ninety three season, as the Badgers were starting to
demonstrate just how good a program they'd become, an epic
(00:32):
game was played at Camp Randall the Wisconsin Holmes Stadium.
Here is doctor Michael Brynn himself to tell us the
story of what is known in Wisconsin as the Camp
Randall Stampede.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
It's nineteen ninety three. I was a pre med student
who was given a chance to walk on to play
for the University of Wisconsin Badger's football team. We had
come off the disappointing year in nineteen ninety two, but
that nineteen ninety three team was different. We started hot.
We knew that we had the chance to reach all
the goals that we had set before us in the
beginning of the year, and that was to win the
(01:06):
Big Ten and get to the Rose Bowl. We've always
had some of the craziest, rowdiest, most loyal fans anywhere
in the country, let alone the Big Ten our test.
The next obstacle that we had in our way to
prove that we were the real deal was the University
of Michigan Wolverines. Michigan was the perennial powerhouse in the
Big Ten, getting to the Rose Bowl the year before
(01:27):
winning the Big Ten. They were in our way. The
game comes and we're ready for it, and this is
the place they called the camp. Everybody on that team, offense, defense,
special teams, we were clicking. It was probably one of
the most exciting games I've ever been a part of.
I still remember Terrell Fletcher making a little cut in
the backfield and scoring a long touchdown really put us
(01:49):
ahead for the end of the game. You talk took
to the backfield, he break the back of a good
ten What drigs quick At the end, Michigan now has
the ball. The game's coming down to the last minute.
They have a chance to come back and do something,
but now it's our defense is turned to make the stand.
The clock is ticking and then finally a.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Sat managers take over.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Clock ticks down and at the end you look up
and you see Wisconsin victorious and the Inmates are set
to take over campers Day. We have now slain the giant.
Everybody celebrated, so now the students want to charge the
field and they want to jump onto the field with
us to celebrate the end of the game. We go
through a tunnel that's right through our student section. As
(02:33):
we're walking up to our tunnel, something is wrong. We
realized some lives might be in danger. The police were
initially told don't let the students in. Don't let the
students in. So now the people at the top of
the student section don't know that. They can't hear that,
so they're pushing down. They want to get down onto
the field to celebrate as quickly as possible. Thick metal
railings were the only thing that really stood between the
(02:53):
student section and getting onto the field, and now it
becomes a wave of humanity. Now the the sheer weight
of all these students trying to come down. Unfortunately, when
that happens, the people at the bottom, they don't have
time to get out. Wave after wave of people. They're
piling onto each other because the people at the top
don't know what's going on at the bottom, and the
(03:14):
people at the bottom can't move and they are stuck
under five ten, twenty one hundred a thousand people. All
of a sudden, right in front of me, I see
two of my teammates, John Hall and Brent Moss picking
one of our students. They're picking her over a fence
because she was pinned against the fence and she couldn't
(03:34):
get out. And she looked at them and said, I
can't bring So I grabbed her leg and helped her over,
and Brent and John go and they start helping somebody else,
and she looks up at me and she says thank you,
thank you. When I look at her and I say,
get out of here, get to the tunnel, get safe,
get somewhere safe. I was great friends with two girls,
Jen and Marcy. I knew where they sat. All of
(03:56):
a sudden, I realized that they could be in trouble.
I climb up the tunnel wall to the other side
of the stands where I knew that Jenn and Marci
were sitting. As I climb over the wall, it was
just bodies. There were people everywhere. We need help. This
is a life and death situation. I looked down and
I could see a young girl. Her face was blue purple,
(04:20):
and it didn't look like she was breathing. What was
laying in front of me was someone who I thought
was dead. I jumped right next to her. I wait
to see if she's breathing. I wait to see if
there's blinking, if there's anything there wasn't. I knew the
basics of CPR, and the first one was airway, so
I started the mouth's mouth. I brought my head down
towards her, and we got a couple of breaths, and
(04:40):
it looked like it started stimulating some breathing. At that point,
we started seeing some movement in her chest wall, a
little flicker of a light that was starting. There were
a couple other people that were there, saying what can
we do? What ca we do? They were trying to help.
They were holding her hand, they were talking to her.
There's nothing more for.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Me to do.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
They're helping her. And I look down towards the field
and I'm probably about fifteen twenty rows up. As I
look down, I see some of my teammates still in
their pads, still in their uniform are offensive lineman Joe Panels,
Brian Patterson, Tyler Adams, Joe Rudolph, and our team dentist
George Warren. They're dragging them out of those bottom rows
(05:18):
where they were just laying and strewn on the ground.
All of a sudden, I hear one of our equipment managers,
yell Over, said, hey, Brand, we got to get back
in the locker room. Get into the locker room. Grabs
my helmet and we start going in that there are
and what says here to people are heading your way.
And as I walk into the locker room, can't really
(05:40):
comprehend the fact that I think I just saw someone
die in front of me. Now the only thing is
what happened to them? Did I do enough? The focus
was now on the students. It was now on what
just happened and what else can we do? I see
Joe Rudolph, you know, one of our starting offensive linement,
(06:01):
had buried in his lap in tears, and nobody knew
what to do with this. We just beat Michigan, and
yet in a moment, it didn't matter. The only thing
that mattered was our friends, was our fellow students, was
a University of Wisconsin, was that community that meant so
much to us. After the game, I made sure that
(06:22):
my friends Jenn and Marcy were okay. You know, I
call them up, and you know, I find out they're fine.
They got out quickly. They were actually on the field. Thankfully,
my friends weren't involved. Who else was involved? What else
was going on? Our Sunday is typically a day to
work out, loosen our legs after the game, and I
get called emergently back into our offices, so they bring
(06:42):
me out. The word got out that first girl, Amey,
who was pulled over the fence. She reached out and said, hey,
number three helped me. My story then now takes off.
How does a football player know how to do CPO?
Than fully? I became a focus, and I say thankfully
(07:03):
because we still had football to play. We had Ohio
State that next week. I become the focus because I'm
not going to get on the field against Ohio State.
I was a scout team player, so I can take
some of that focus away from my team and let
them get back to what they need to focus on.
But it wasn't going to happen until we knew what
happened with these students, what happened with our friends. Coach
(07:24):
Elverrez brought a whole bunch of people in to give
us an update on everybody and they had told us
that eleven people went to the hospital and critical condition,
but nobody had died. And when they said that, and
when we all heard that, sitting together, a weight lifted
from our shoulders, A weightlifted saying all right, I didn't
have to do anything more. I did what I could.
(07:47):
My friends, our community, They're going to be okay. I
was informed of where a couple of these critical patients went.
I went out and I got a single flock, I
got a rose, and I went to the hospital around
the corner where I knew some of these patients were.
And I went to the front desk and I introduced
myself and I said, hey, I'm on the team. I
(08:09):
know that some of these victims came here. You don't
have to give me any info, but I just want
to give someone this flower, just to let them know
that we're still thinking about them. I'll never forget the
person looked at me and said, they're gone, They're all home,
nobody's left. I've never felt happier. The last person had
(08:32):
been discharged the day before. Everybody was home. The understanding
that everybody who was so amazing for us, that gave
us that spirit, that gave us that will to push
forward when nobody else believed in us they were going
to be okay, the team pressed on, we won the
(08:52):
Big Ten. We knew what we needed to do when
we got to that Rose Bowl, but our job wasn't done.
So now we had that next step and we get
to the Rose Bowl and at the end of the
year we came out on top. That ninety three season
will be remembered for so many reasons. It'll be remembered
(09:15):
for who we were, accomplishing more than anybody thought we
could by coming together as a group, and by loving
each other and playing for each other and trusting each
other as much as we did. And it'll be remembered
for heroism. It'll be known for a group of people
that came together to try to help each other at
a moment of need, and nobody backed off, nobody flinched.
(09:39):
My little role on the University Wisconsin football team, as
small as it may have been, I think I'm one
of the luckiest people in the world to have gone
through something like this, not alone, but together as a group,
and to look back with pride, pride in that we
showed our love, we showed our caring, We showed our will,
(10:02):
and we showed that we won't flinch, and we showed
the will of a group of people that truly believed
in each other and part of a community that is
thriving now.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And a terrific job by the production editing and storytelling
by one of our regular contributors, John Elfner, who's a
high school history teacher in Illinois. By the way, if
you teach history, even if you don't, We love our
listener contributions. We have all kinds of folks out there
who know their towns, know their family's story, and know
America's story. Send them to our American stories dot com.
(10:36):
The story of the Camp Randall's stampede here on our
American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.