Once again, Oklahoma State University is reeling from a deadly sports-related catastrophe.
Four years after losing two basketball coaches in a plane crash, and 14 years after a plane crash killed two basketball players and several staff members, the campus is facing perhaps its most difficult test — the deaths of four people after a driver plowed into the university's homecoming parade.
The disasters are unrelated, and there is no suggestion of any wider problems other than terrible luck.
Still, considered alongside one another, the tragedies have caused a disproportionate amount of grieving for the campus in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Related: OSU Parade Crash Suspect's Lawyer Says She May Be Mentally Ill
On Jan. 27, 2001, members of the OSU men's basketball program and local media were returning from a game in Colorado when their plane slammed into a pasture, killing all the passengers and pilots. The dead included two players, the director of basketball operations, media-relations staffers and a broadcast reporter.
On Nov. 17, 2011, women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna were among four killed when their plane went down in Arkansas during a recruiting trip.
On Sunday, four people — a former professor and his wife, a 2-year-old boy and a student from a nearby college — were killed when a 25-year-old woman drove her car into a crowd assembled for the homecoming parade, officials said.
The alleged driver, Adacia Chambers, has been charged with murder in the crash, in which another 47 people were hurt.
