STORRS – Jasper Howard, a 5-foot-9, 174-pound starting cornerback on the UConn football team, died today after an on-campus stabbing.
According to multiple sources, Howard, 20, was taken to St. Francis Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Coach Randy Edsall spent the night at St. Francis.
Howard is from Miami and attended Miami Edison High School.
Howard played in UConn’s 38-25 vicory over Louisville Saturday.
UConn officials reported a fight and stabbing early Sunday morning at the Storrs campus.
The perpetrator of the stabbing is still at large, according to an emergency alert posted on the University’s website Sunday morning.
Police are asking anyone with information related to the stabbing to contact the University police at 860-486-4800.
Edsall and sports information director Mike Enright did not return calls.
http://www.courant.com/sports/
Leavitt empathizes with Edsall, UConn
October 19, 2009 3:35 PM
If any coach in the Big East can relate to what Randy Edsall and the UConn community is going through right now, it’s South Florida’s Jim Leavitt.
The Bulls haven’t lost a player in midseason like the Huskies did with Jasper Howard’s stabbing death. But they’ve had their own share of tragedies.
Those include the death of freshman running back Keeley Dorsey in a conditioning drill in January 2007. One player on the team is still wearing Dorsey’s No. 10 in tribute this season. Patrick Payton was killed in a motorcycle accident in the 2001 offseason. And this summer, former player Will Bleakley died at sea in a boating accident.
Leavitt thought about all of those losses when he found out about Howard.
“When I heard about it on Sunday, I broke,” Leavitt said today on the Big East coaches’ weekly teleconference. “It brought back all the memories of what I had to go through with our football team, with Keeley’s family, but also Patrick Payton, and Will Bleakley. We’ve been through a lot of different things, and there’s no way you can describe the pain that you go through.
“The only thing you can do is put faith in our Lord and in each other. I haven’t had to go through it during a season. It was in the spring, in winter conditioning, so we had a couple of weeks where I let the guys sit down with their families. That’s what’s going to be an incredible challenge for Randy and the team.
“But there’s nothing worse. It does put things in perspective. You lose a football game, and it’s very difficult. But it is nothing like losing a player.”
Jasper Howard murder: Suspect arrested in fatal stabbing of UConn football star
BY Stephanie Gaskell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, October 19th 2009, 2:04 PM
Cardinals pay respect to fallen UConn player
The Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe says Connecticut cornerback Jasper Howard was “a great player” and his death during the weekend was a “tragedy.”
Kragthorpe expressed his condolences on Monday over the fatal stabbing of the Connecticut football player just hours after helping the Huskies beat the Cardinals.
The 20-year-old Howard, from Miami, was stabbed during a fight outside a school-sanctioned dance. He died a short time later.
Louisville running back Victor Anderson says he had an ongoing conversation with Howard throughout UConn’s 38-25 win, a game in which Howard had a career-high 11 tackles and forced a fumble. Anderson says he was saddened by Howard’s passing.
Second UConn football player was stabbed
(AP) – 2 hours ago
STORRS, Conn. — Another Connecticut football player has been identified as the second victim in Sunday morning’s fatal stabbing at the University of Connecticut.
Brian Parker, a 19-year-old sophomore wide receiver from Sarasota, Fla., sustained minor injuries in the attack that killed teammate Jasper Howard outside a university-sponsored dance.
Parker, who is academically ineligible this season, is identified in a police report stemming from the arrest of Johnny Hood, a Hartford man taken into custody after the fight on charges of breach of peace and interfering with police.
The incident report says Parker identified Hood as one of those involved in the attack. Hood was arraigned Monday and ordered held on $100,000 bond.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Edsall says players weren’t fighting
STORRS, Conn. — Connecticut Huskies football coach Randy Edsall said he’s heard nothing to indicate members of his team were involved in a fight before cornerback Jasper Howard was killed.
Edsall, speaking Tuesday at his weekly pregame news conference, said there may have been some “verbal jostling” but has not been told that any of his players were fighting with anyone.
Police say Howard was stabbed to death, and another player suffered minor injuries, during an altercation following a dance early Sunday morning on the UConn campus.
A Hartford attorney says his client, who expects to be arrested, was fighting with several football players before the stabbing.
Edsall said Howard’s mother visited with each player Monday, and his uncle, a former Miami police officer, advised them not to seek revenge.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
University of Connecticut mourns slain football player
- Story Highlights
- UConn will mark Tuesday as a day of silence for slain football player
- Jasper Howard, 20, was stabbed to death early Sunday after a student dance
- Black Student Association asks community to wear dark clothes in mourning
- Candlelight vigil is Wednesday, and other commemorations are planned
(CNN) — The University of Connecticut will mark Tuesday as a day of silence for slain football player Jasper Howard, who was killed over the weekend.
The university’s Black Student Association is asking the UConn community to wear dark clothes Tuesday to show that it is united in mourning, the school said on its athletic Web site.
Howard, a 20-year-old cornerback, was stabbed to death early Sunday after a student dance on the campus in Storrs, authorities said.
Further activities to remember Howard are planned this week, UConn said, including a candlelight vigil on Wednesday.
The school’s football team will play West Virginia on Saturday, and the players’ helmets will carry Howard’s initials for the away game.
