Friends of Bogan Football Player Start a Go Fund Me Account to Help with his Funeral Expenses
Photo By: Facebook
Friends and family of Andre Smith, started a Go Fund Me account last week, after the student football player from Chicago's Bogan High School, died from injuries sustained during a game against Chicago Vocational High School.
The death was the second to hit the Smith household. Andre’s father, Eric, died in 2000 after a tragic motorcycle accident.
David Yarbrough started the account. Yarbrough and Smith’s father were line brothers who were initiated in the Omega Psi Phi’s Epsilon Beta chapter at Western Illinois University.
“I’ve been around Andre all of his life. Being the closest man in Andre’s life since his father died, I took on the fatherly responsibility best and I could,” Yarbrough says. “That’s how we’re connected.”
Yarbrough said that Smith was an average kid playing the sport he loved.
“Andre was your typical teenager. He was heavily involved in sports. Football was his passion,” Yarbrough said. “He was a sensitive kid, a quiet kid. But he was your typical teenager. Just a good-hearted kid.”
At Chicago Citizen Newspaper press time, the Andre Smith Fund had raised over $3,100.
Andre Smith, 17, was hit in the last play of the football game and collapsed after walking off the field. He was taken to the hospital after the game.
According to witnesses, Smith collapsed during the handshake line after the game. Smith died last week at Advocate Christ Medical Center. Relatives said his brain had swelling.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said that Smith died from “blunt force head injuries due to a football accident.”
Smith is the seventh high school football player this year to die from on-the-field injuries.
Jeanine Smith, Andre’s mother was unavailable for comment at Chicago Citizen Newspaper press time.
Yarbrough added that the family is holding up as well as can be expected. “It’s rough but the family is holding up. They’re coming together and being supportive of one another. It’s going to be a rough road,” Yarbrough said.
For more information on the Andre Smith Fund, log on to https://www.gofundme.com/7g7zwasw.
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