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In Michigan, high school students mourn four victims of a rampage, including footballer Tate Myre
Photo: SETH HERALD / REUTERS
The University of Michigan football team wore a small logo on their chest for the Conference final against the University of Iowa on Saturday night (local time).
It read "TM", including a "42" and four hearts, backed by a yellow O. The O of Oxford High School in Michigan, a little north of Detroit, where four students went on a rampage last Tuesday died.
Hence the four hearts.
The initials "TM" and the number 42 stand for one of the victims: Tate Myre.
The 16-year-old was one of the stars of the school's football team, the Wildcats.
He's already been invited by universities with the prospect of playing in one of the best college leagues in America after high school.
Myre wore the number 42 on his jersey, he was considered one of the best running backs of his year.
Myre is also said to have started running during the rampage.
But not to escape Sagittarius.
Myre wanted to help, as his former coach Ross Wingert told the Detroit Free Press.
"I was told they were all going in the same direction, only Tate was going the other way." Tate is said to have tried to disarm the shooter.
The police said there was no evidence of this.
Still, Myre has been considered a hero ever since.
By Sunday afternoon, German time, a petition had collected almost 250,000 signatures for the Oxford Wildcats' stadium to be renamed "Tate Myre Stadium".
"He is a hero"
"Tate was a fighter," said Jim Harbaugh, University of Michigan football coach, during the game against Iowa.
“The best athlete in school could easily have made it out of school first.
But he ran into the fire while the others ran away.
He's a hero, ”said Harbaugh, who once coached the NFL before returning to college.
In the United States, college football is sometimes more popular than the professional league, with more than 100,000 spectators in the Michigan Wolverines stadium, which is almost an hour and a half from Oxford High School in Ann Arbor.
Tate Myre's family was among the spectators at the game against Iowa on Saturday night, which took place at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Together with the captains of both teams, they stepped onto the lawn to toss a coin before the game.
After a minute's silence, Michigan rolled over Iowa and won 42-3 - 42 of all things. "We wanted to honor Tate Myre in this game," said Harbaugh after the game.
hba / AP