Who’s Ty Jordan? Utah Football Player Dies By Gunshot Wound

A freshman running back from the University of Utah was shot and killed on Friday in Dallas, Texas.

Ty Jordan was pronounced dead at the hospital after he was accidentally shot Christmas night around 9:40 p.m.

When the police department arrived, all they found was Jordan with one gunshot wound, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.

He was 19 years old.

The Utah athletics department tweeted a photo of Jordan at 12:00 p.m. to inform the community that he passed. The post received many replies with prayers to his family and friends.

The 19-year-old was a starting running back as a freshman at the university. He had 597 rushing yards, six touchdowns, as well as 83 carries across five games, the Tribune reports.

As for the last few games he played, he had 468 rushing yards with six touchdowns, which were every touchdown of the games.

The day before he died, the Pac-12 named him the Offensive Freshman of the Year. He was also named on the All-Pac-12 second team.

This isn’t the first time Jordan has been in national spotlight. Jordan’s mother died just four-and-a-half months earlier from bone and lung cancer. He and Gage Smith, another high school senior, were videoed praying together in 2019, which was posted on Facebook.

NBC’s TODAY ended up catching wind of the prayer and running it as its own feature on the show.

“Words cannot express the devastation and heartache that our team is feeling right now upon learning of the tragic death of our teammate and brother, Ty Jordan. Ty’s personality and smile were infectious and he made a huge impact on our program in the short time he was with us,” Utah’s head coach Kyle Whittingham said in a statement.

No other details on the shooting are known or been released.