Just hours prior to their 7:00 p.m. game against Colorado on Oct. 3, the Oregon football players headed back to their hotel rooms following the team’s morning stretch.
“We all started lining up for the elevator,” offensive lineman Tyrell Crosby said. “It opened up and a storm of us all just ran through.”
As the Ducks crammed into the elevator, a steady beeping noise followed; the doors wouldn’t close. They kicked off about five players, leaving around 15 inside, before the relentless sound ceased and the doors shut.
The elevator started going up.
Five seconds later, the players felt a small drop. They didn’t think much of it, because the elevators at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, where they practice, do the same thing.
“Oh, it’s no big deal,” Crosby thought.
A second later they felt another drop. Then the elevator stopped completely.
At first they thought it was a joke, that the elevator wasn’t actually stuck. Before long, punter Ian Wheeler pushed the emergency button and got on the line with hotel maintenance through the built-in phone.
“For the first 10 seconds we were all freaking out,” Crosby said. “After that, we were making a joke out of it and just had fun.”
The players thought, for sure, they had exceeded the elevator’s maximum weight capacity. That was until wide receiver Jalen Brown pulled out his phone to calculate their combined weight: more than a dozen college football players managed to stay under the limit by almost 200 pounds.
305-pound defensive lineman Austin Maloata tried to pry the doors open, but to no avail.
Being in there, Crosby said, was “just miserable.”
“It got really hot in there,” Crosby said. “We all just came from stretching, so we were all just sweaty and gross.”
We got trapped in the elevator 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/2D5EZnmdYw
— tyrell crosby (@Tyrellcrosby) October 3, 2015
Wide receiver Devon Allen was fortunate to have taken the stairs to his room. He saw his teammates bullrush the overcrowded elevator, and decided to meet them upstairs. “I saw all the guys pile in, and I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to wait for the elevator’,” Allen said. “So I went around to the stairs. Then I got there and nobody was coming off.” Allen went back to his room and was there for just a few minutes before he heard a ruckus in the hallway, and found out his teammates were trapped. Just a few months ago, Allen got stuck in an apartment complex elevator with his friends, who were “being stupid and jumping.” “I had a flashback of my experience being stuck in an elevator, and so I just went straight to live-tweeting,” he said. Allen was stuck inside for an hour and a half over the summer. His teammates were more fortunate, about 35 minutes passed before the Westminster Fire Department rescued them. Allen documented the ensuing rescue mission from his Twitter account, dubbing it, “trapped in an elevator chronicles chapter 2” and using the hashtag #savetheducks.
Trapped in an elevator chronicles chapter 2 pt. 3 help is here already! pic.twitter.com/L3LBHtuZVy — DEVOΝ ΑLLΕΝ 1⃣3⃣ (@DevonAllen13) October 3, 2015
The firefighters opened up the roof and dropped a ladder down to the players, who were directly between the first and second floors. The ladder itself had a weight limit of 300 pounds, and at least three 300-pound lineman depended on it.
Trapped in an elevator chronicles chapter 2 pt. 7 ladder coming in!! pic.twitter.com/DceFmYA8qq
— DEVOΝ ΑLLΕΝ 1⃣3⃣ (@DevonAllen13) October 3, 2015
The ladder held firm, though, as each player climbed up the elevator shaft and out the entrance to the second floor.
Trapped in an elevator chronicles chapter 2 pt. 11 everyone is out thanks to these guys! #SaveOurDucks pic.twitter.com/f79AGCYNfB — DEVOΝ ΑLLΕΝ 1⃣3⃣ (@DevonAllen13) October 3, 2015
The Ducks went on to beat Colorado 41-24 after a lightning delay. Crosby had a good laugh at his Snapchat story afterward.
Watching my snap story has me in tears of laughter 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/mCPd9orUad — tyrell crosby (@Tyrellcrosby) October 3, 2015
Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby