Joseph Tanner Wray Dies During Boxing Tournament
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A 20-year-old student at the University of Tennessee collapsed and died Friday night during a fraternity charity boxing event.
Joseph Tanner Wray of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, collapsed at 9:26 p.m. between the second and third rounds of the boxing match as he was about to sit down on his stool inside the ring, according to the Knoxville Police Department.
He was competing in the Ace Miller Boxing Tournament, which is an annual tournament where the school’s fraternities box against each other.
Wray received medical assistance at the scene, was transported to UT Medical Center and was pronounced dead upon arrival. While the investigation is ongoing and an autopsy is being performed, his family and friends are grieving over his sudden death.
“This country, this world, lost a phenomenal man,” his mother, Amy Long Schisler, told Knox News. “He was just perfect. He gave 110 percent to everything he did.”
Wray — who was a junior majoring in aerospace engineering — was the starting quarterback and linebacker on his high school team. He was also the valedictorian.
Despite multiple offers from other universities who wanted him to play on their football team, Wray only had one school on his mind.
“He had three of those big storage boxes full of offers from other schools,” Schisler told the news outlet. “But he only wanted to go to UT, ever since he was little. He said he would rather sit in the stands and cheer on his Vols than play somewhere else.”
On Saturday, Schisler wrote on Facebook that “last night was the absolute worst night of my life.”
Her “baby” she said, collapsed from cardiac arrest and that the “Lord called him home.”
The post has since been shared over 1,200 times.
His fraternity also spoke out and and said Wray had an “outstanding academic record.”
“Our thoughts are with Tanner’s family and friends, the Phi Delta Chapter, and the Vols community,” they wrote in a statement on their website.
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