Oregon State player Fred Thompson dead

CORVALLIS, Ore., Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Oregon State University said 19-year-old football player Fred Thompson collapsed while playing basketball and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The school said Thompson, a freshman from Richmond, Calif., was playing basketball in a campus gym Wednesday when he collapsed and was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis, where he was pronounced dead, CNN reported Thursday.

Thompson, a defensive tackle who would have turned 20 Sunday, apparently suffered a heart attack while playing basketball at the Dixon Rec Center, The Oregonian reported.