Freshman vs. Bus

By Jordan Schraeder in 40 Acres, July | August 2012 on June 22, 2012 at 5:08 pm | No Comments

The old adage “it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt” came true at this year’s Foam Sword Friday, a stress-relieving end-of-semester tradition sponsored by UT’s Undergraduate Architecture Student Council.

The six-year-old campus ritual, hosted at the Co-op crosswalk on the Drag, had students dressing in costumes and brandishing foam swords on the last day of classes. For several hours straight, every time the light turned red, participants would charge into the street for some hand-to-hand combat, often yelling “Texas Fight!” When the light turned again, they would cease.

Since 2006, the event had gone off twice a year without a hitch. But this year, while charging into the intersection for another duel, freshman Nick Engmann was smacked down by a CapMetro bus gunning against a yellow light.

Despite being popped into the air and landing in front of the bus—resulting in a harrowing viral YouTube video—Engmann sustained only minor injuries, quickly getting up within seconds, and later updating his Facebook status to say he was “the sorest guy on the planet.” He even appeared on Good Morning America, telling host Robin Roberts he was thinking “Wow, did I just get hit by a bus?”

Engmann wasn’t the only one to see the humor in his close call: Gawker posted the video in a story titled, “It’s Okay to Laugh at This College Student Getting Hit By a Bus.” A Frogger-like computer game called “Nick vs. Bus” has also popped up on the Internet, the work of a UT computer science student.

Photos by Jeff Heimsath

Tags: CapMetro, Co-op, Drag, Foam Sword Fight, Nick Engmann, Undergraduate Architecture Council