An Ohio State student who ran onto the field during a Buckeyes football game now faces losing his full-ride scholarship over the stunt.
Engineering student Anthony J. Wunder, 21, ran out onto the field in the second quarter of the Saturday, September 27, game between Ohio State and the Cincinnati Bearcats. OSU strength and conditioning coach, Anthony Schlegel, a former Buckeyes linebacker, roughly tackled the student and manhandled him off the field.
The mechanical-engineering student waived his first appearance in court where he was charged with criminal trespassing. His lawyer entered a not-guilty plea and asked for a jury trial.
But lawyer Mark Collins reports that his client was told that he has lost his full ride scholarship through the Evans Scholars program because of the incident.
Wunder has already moved out of the Evans Scholars House but is thus far not dropping out of school. The student is in the fourth year of a five-year engineering program.
Officials say that Wunder was drunk when they booked him after the incident. He was booked at Franklin County jail and posted a $79 bond and released.
Collins says they will try to figure a way to reinstate Wunder’s scholarship.
OSU head coach Urban Meyer said he was a bit worried that his assistant coach, former Buckeyes linebacker Anthony Schlegel, might face a lawsuit of his own for being so rough taking the student down on the field.
“I appreciated him protecting our players,” Meyer said. “[But] I’d rather him not have a lawsuit if something bad would happen, you drill a guy like that.”
But Meyer also said that there were a lot of jokes flying around about the incident with staffers. Meyer said they “gave him a ‘Hit City’ award, our team, and had a little fun with it, too.”
The student has avoided the press, speaking only through his lawyer.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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