Fordham Player Dies As His Family Watches

A Fordham University football player died Saturday after collapsing during pregame warmups, causing a postponement of the Rams’ game with Lafayette.

Bill Tierney, 20, of Lyndhurst, N.J., was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour after collapsing at Coffey Field in the Bronx.

“He was a great, great kid,” said Fordham athletic director Frank McLaughlin.

“This is unbelievable.”

The junior, a starting defensive back, “was just running and he dropped. There was never a pulse,” McLaughlin said.

A crowd of 3,000 - including Tierney’s parents, Raymond and Kathleen, and his sister, Ryann - was in the stands for the homecoming game when Tierney, who had mild asthma, fell about 1 p.m., just minutes before his 15-year-old sister was to sing the national anthem.

Brian Byrne, Fordham’s vice president for administration, said the cause of death was expected to be determined by an autopsy.