Autopsy results are expected Tuesday on Derringer Cade, a Northeast Missouri State linebacker who collapsed on the sidelines and died Saturday in an incident that seemed tragically similar to the death of college basketball star Hank Gathers.
”The kid was having a tremendous game, the game of his life,” John Ware, assistant head coach at Northeast Missouri State, said Sunday. ”It did remind us of Hank Gathers. It has made football seem like a very unimportant thing around here today.”
Cade, 20, had no history of medical problems, Ware said. He collapsed in the final minutes of Northeast`s game at Bolivar, Mo., against Southwest Baptist and died a short time later at a Bolivar hospital.
Speculation by medical personnel at the scene centered on a possible undiagnosed diabetic condition, Ware said.
Like Gathers, Cade died while doing what he loved best.
Gathers, the Loyola Marymount star who had a history of heart trouble, died moments after making a thunderous dunk in a game March 4.
Cade had just sacked the quarterback.
”He was celebrating with the other guys coming off the field,” Ware said. ”Then a couple of minutes later, all of a sudden, he just collapsed face down.”
