NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Rutgers freshman fullback Mark Mills, who collapsed during a spring football practice and fell into critical condition six days ago, died Thursday. He was 18.
Doctors said Mills suffered an aneurysm -- a congenital weakness of an artery -- during a practice April 26. Last Saturday he lapsed into critical condition and died 3:15 p.m. Thursday at St. Peter's Medical Center in New Brunswick.
'We will be greatly affected by this loss,' said Frank Burns, head coach of the Scarlet Knights football program. 'Mark was a tremendous person, a well-liked young man and a finely conditioned athlete who showed great promise. Our sympathy goes out to his family.'
Mills, a freshman walk-on who starred at nearby Piscataway High School, suffered 'a rupture of a malformed blood vessel in the brain,' said Dr. Ira Kassoff, a neurosurgeon at the medical center.
'It was not due to a head injury and was not directly related to playing football,' Kassoff said. 'Any increased exertion or emotional excitement could have caused the rupture ... it could have occurred when he was walking down the street.'
Mills was the second Rutgers football player in two years to die from an aneurysm during a practice. Doug Smith, 18, of Masontown, Pa., died March 24, 1981 after collapsing on the field.
