Four Athletes Lose Their Lives

Four athletes from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, including a football player who scored the winning touchdown in the Bulldogs’ 19-15 victory over East Central Oklahoma on Saturday, died in a traffic accident early Sunday.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said the driver of the car, Charles Edward Gulley Jr., 22, of Oklahoma City, and the car’s other occupants were trapped in the wreckage on Interstate 40 for about 45 minutes before they were freed.

Gulley, Alvin Ray Milton, 22, of Lubbock, Texas, and Cornelious Chiles, 20, of Temple, Texas, were pronounced dead at the scene of massive head and internal injuries, the patrol said. Telly Ramon Gatewood, of Jones, Okla., who would have turned 20 on Thursday, died at Southwestern Memorial Hospital in Weatherford several hours later, the patrol said.

Just 11 hours earlier, Milton, a starting wide receiver, had caught a 54-yard pass with 1:29 remaining as Southwestern defeated East Central.

The accident occurred, the patrol said, when the athletes’ car slid out of control during a blinding thunderstorm and was struck by a tractor-trailer.

Troopers said none of the victims was wearing a seat belt.