Cannon blast blows UTEP student 30 feet downhill, ends football tradition: Trish Long
Several years ago, I was asked about an incident in the early 1990s where a UTEP student was injured, putting an end to the firing of a cannon after touchdowns and at the end of UTEP football games.
This week a found a couple of articles on the Nov. 17, 1990, accident and an opinion column by Charlie Edgren giving some details.
This story by Ed Ivey ran in the El Paso Times Nov. 19, 1990
Cannon blast blows man downhill
UTEP student falls 20 feet at football game
A UTEP student was blown down the side of a mountain after firing a small cannon to signal the end of Saturday’s UTEP-Air Force football game, campus police said Sunday.
Jerry Hunkapillar, 20, suffered a severe arm injury but was in fair and stable condition at Beaumont Army Medical Center Sunday night. He was taken by Army helicopter to the hospital after he fell about 20 feet when the cannon went off.
University of Texas at El Paso Police Chief Bill Rodriguez said investigators still aren’t sure what happened when Hunkapillar fired the cannon and was knocked down the hill near the Sun Bowl. Police are trying to determine if the cannon might have exploded as he fired it.
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It might have been an explosion
“His injuries were primarily to the left arm. We don’t know exactly what he was hit by, but it might have been (an) explosion,” he said.
Hunkapillar was one of two students – both members of the National Society of Pershing Rifles, a military science fraternity – assigned to fire the cannon.
Lt. Col. Fredrick Jones, chairman of the UTEP military science department, refused to identify the other student but said he was unhurt in the incident.
Both Hunkapillar and the other student are cadets in UTEP’s Reserve Officer Training Corps program, Jones said.
Canon used since early 1970s
Jones said the cannon does not fire any projectiles, but he refused to discuss specific aspects of how the cannon is fired or what condition it was in after the accident.
The president of the Pershing Rifles fraternity, UTEP senior Jerome Garcia, said the cannon has been used since the early 1970s to signal Miner touchdowns and the end of games.
Garcia said the cannon is small enough to be handled by one or two people and is taken up on the mountain before every game.
Garcia also refused to say what type of cannon it is, what type of explosive is used to fire it, and what was the condition of the cannon.
Cannon explosion wounds student
The Herald Post’s afternoon article by Patrick C. McDonnell added some more information:
… Hunkapillar fired the cannon, located on the southeast side of the mountain that the stadium is built into, at the end of the UTEP-Air Force football game. It apparently blew up and ripped open his left arm, causing multiple fractures, said Bill Rodriguez, UTEP police chief.
The injury was so severe that there was speculation as to whether Hunkapillar’s arm could be saved. Rose said today that he had not received information regarding possible amputation.
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The blast knocked Hunkapillar backward, and he fell 30 to 35 feet, said El Paso Deputy Sheriff Fernando Esparza. Esparza is a team leader of the department’s Search and Rescue Unit, which helped retrieve Hunkapillar. Hunkapillar was taken down to the stadium field, from where an Army helicopter flew him to the hospital…
The Pershing Rifles is a student organization that maintains and fires the canon, UTEP spokeswoman Carole Barasch said. The group is not formally connected to UTEP’s military-science department, but the department provides a faculty adviser who oversees the group, she said.
Representatives of the military-science department would not comment.
Sun isn’t shining in Sunray
Although I did not find any articles on the lawsuit, there is record of the lawsuit listed on the El Paso County website. There is also this mention in a Dec. 19, 1992 column by Charles Edgren.
Edgren suggest that if you are traveling through Sunray, Texas that you don’t let it be known that you are an El Pasoan:
There aren’t a whole lot of people in Sunray. But little Sunray is up in arms about one of those few people, a son of Sunray who received short shrift at the hands of an El Paso court.
Jerry Hunkapillar had always wanted to be a Marine. His dad, who died about nine years ago, had been in the service, and Jerry was always fascinated by the military…
Jerry came down to UTEP and entered the ROTC program. Part of his job was to fire the cannon at UTEP home games when the Miners scored a touchdown.
Wrong kind of gunpowder
It happened on Nov. 17, 1990 …
The cause of the explosion: Jerry and another young man had bought the wrong kind of gunpowder.
The result of the explosion: Jerry has had 10 surgeries to save his arm, and will need three more, plus rehab and therapy.
Another result of the explosion: Jerry will never be a Marine.
Jerry went to court in El Paso to get his medical bills, both past and future, paid by UTEP. He lost.
The people of Sunray are, to use an understatement, upset. They wonder.
They wonder why UTEP didn't buy the powder instead of having the students buy it. They wonder why the boys were found negligent instead of the school. They wonder if the jury wasn't a little biased in favor of hometown UTEP.
And they note that UTEP no longer use the cannon at its football games.
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-546-6179.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Cannon blast blows UTEP student downhill, ends football tradition
