Text message courtesy of Alaina Burris
A message alerted students March 19, 2021, that the campus was on lockdown until further notice. Everyone was warned to take shelter immediately. Unfamiliar with the situation, students remained indoors, whether that be in dorm rooms, locker rooms or the student center.
Having a 2 p.m. practice scheduled for the day, and the lockdown interfering with actually being able to practice, football players were growing restless during the three-hour lockdown. Offensive lineman Madrid Steele and defensive lineman James Ruck took it upon themselves to pass the time with a friendly game of Uno.
“I didn’t know how long we we’re going to be stuck inside, once an hour went by and we still weren’t practicing,” Steele says.
Steel said he and James “Big Ruck” Rucker started asking teammates if they wanted to play Uno.
Four of their teammates joined in the game of Uno and made the most out of this unfortunate situation.
When Rucker was asked if he was worried that he and his teammates were endangered at the time, he responds, “I have been robbed, shot at multiple times, but knowing that there was a bomb on campus did take the air.”
It was later discovered that the type of bomb found on campus was described by authorities as a “rudimentary explosive device.” The campus officials and authorities still have little knowledge of what happened and why, but there is an open investigation going on to find out.