RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke and James Madison were warming up before kickoff when two men unexpectedly parachuted into Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium with the game ball Saturday.
The men didn’t hit any of the players on the field. They just hit the wrong field.
North Carolina was scheduled to receive the game ball for its game against McNeese State via an aerial team at about that time approximately 8 miles away in Chapel Hill.
North Carolina assistant athletic director Michael Beale said the jumpers canceled the leap into Kenan Stadium because of bad weather.
When the weather cleared, the pilot saw a stadium, and the skydivers jumped. It was when they landed that they realized they missed their mark. The two men scrambled off the field with the game ball, and North Carolina associate athletic director Rick Steinbacher called Duke officials to apologize.
“In about five years, maybe this will be funny,” Steinbacher said. “Right now, I’m just glad no one was hurt.”
