A University of Tennessee student died Friday after collapsing during an annual charity boxing event hosted by a fraternity. The rest of the tournament was cancelled.
Joseph Tanner Wray, 20, collapsed after the second round of a boxing match during the Ace Miller Boxing Tournament, which is organized by UT fraternities without the university. According to Knoxville police, he collapsed just as he was about to sit down on his stool.
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On-scene medical personnel tried to revive him at the scene, and he was rushed to UT Medical Center. He was pronounced dead on arrival. “The body was transported to the forensics center where an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death. The investigation is continuing,” Knoxville police said in a statement.
The rest of the matches scheduled for Friday were cancelled. After Wray’s death, Saturday events were cancelled.
Wray was an aerospace engineering student from Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, according to WBIR. He was a vice president at UT’s Chi Phi chapter. “Our thoughts are with Tanner’s family and friends, the Phi Delta Chapter, and the Vols community,” the Chi Phi national chapter said in a statement.
Tracy Miller-Davis, the daughter of the late boxing trainer the tournament is named after, also offered her condolences.
“It is with our deepest sympathy in announcing the passing of Tanner Wray,” Miller-Davis said. “The tournament scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 has been canceled. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Family and friends of this boxer.”
“It is the most horrible thing that any mother should have to go through. But I find solace in the fact that I know where he is. I know that he is in Jesus’ presence, and I know that he is celebrating his life for eternity in the presence of our Lord and savior,” Amy Long Schisler, Wray’s mother, told WBIR.
Schisler said her son could have played college football, but wanted to attend UT instead.
“He had the opportunity to play football at a number of school across the nation and he told me, he said, ‘Mama, I’d rather sit in the stands and cheer on my Vols than to play on the field for someone else,’” she told WBIR.
An investigation into Wray’s death is ongoing.
Photo credit: Facebook/ Chi Phi Fraternity
