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It was the first time I was hit and knocked over by a fast flying Eagle

By Chuck Hunt - Editor | Sep 22, 2024

So, you might have heard that I got knocked down by a flying Eagle last week.

Well, that is sort of true.

While I was taking photos at the Blue Earth Area Bucs versus New Ulm Eagles volleyball match last Tuesday night, one of the Eagle players ran after a ball way off the court and collided into me, knocking me to the floor. I never saw her coming and she never saw me until the last second, because she was looking up to see where the ball was and I was looking through my camera viewfinder.

The ironic part was that I was standing a good 30 or more feet off the court just to stay away from any action like that.

Amazingly, I got back up and I really was not hurt at all. Don’t ask me how that is possible, I don’t really know. I was as surprised as anybody.

The Eagle player did immediately apologize and asked if I was alright, before heading back to the court. I was a bit surprised she did not thank me, because I think if she had not collided with me, she might have hit the folded away bleachers at high speed and been hurt.

Several folks have asked me if I was really OK. I have had to tell all of them that yes, I am just fine. And even more importantly, so is my camera. One of the people asking about my condition after the collision said he bet that nothing like that has ever happened to me before.

How wrong he is. That kind of thing has indeed happened to me before. In fact, it has happened a lot of times.

One time at a volleyball game between RTR and Tracy, I was standing near the endline, with my camera aimed towards the net. A girl smacked the ball for a kill, it hit the floor and then hit the end of my telephoto lens. I never saw it coming, because I was looking thru the viewfinder of my camera at another part of the net.

The ball broke my telephoto lens, and the camera hit my face and broke my glasses and gave me two black eyes.

And yes, my friends gave me a lot of grief about looking like a raccoon for the next couple of weeks.

There was this time at a basketball game that was in a small gym at Hills-Beaver Creek. The gym was so small that I had my back against a wall and if I took a step forward my foot was on the court. So yes, a basketball player crashed into me and crushed me into the wall. I was the cushion that saved him from injury. Luckily, I saw him coming and saved the camera lens this time.

There is more. At a football game in Waterville, a play involving several large high school players was headed towards several of us on the sidelines and the group began pedaling backwards to avoid getting hit.

Unfortunately, there was a water pipe coming out of the ground with a faucet on the top, perhaps to fill water jugs, and I toppled over it.

The next day I was headed to Texas on a business trip with my partner. I wore shorts because it was hot in Texas. My business partner enjoyed watching the back of my one leg turn colors – purple, gold, brown, black and a really ugly orange. It was different every day. I think he even took some photos of it.

The worst one that happened at a football game was in Fulda, however. I was 10 yards up field and aiming my camera at the line of scrimmage. The quarterback was rolling out my way to pass the ball and then tucked the ball under his arm and decided to run.

I started taking shots as he was going to run right by me. But he didn’t. He stopped short and suddenly threw the ball to a receiver who was on a slant route and headed right at me, with two defenders on his tail. I had not seen them coming at me.

The receiver caught the ball just as he was going out of bounds, which was also just as he crashed into me. As did the two defenders. I ended up on the bottom of the pile.

A friend of mine had gone with me to the game. He had to help me up. As I came to, I heard the PA announcer across the field say, “Looks like the photographer is up and OK. He sure took a big hit.”And the crowd applauded as I gave a thumbs up. I hurt all over for the next couple of weeks, however.

There are more instances I could tell you about, a whole lot more, but you get the idea. Being a sports photographer is a dangerous job, and having done it for over 50 years, yes, I got too close to the action a whole lot of times.

It is not just me. When I watch sports, especially football, I cringe when I see a player fly out of bounds and plow into a photographer on the sidelines.

I am sure that somewhere there is a list of the most dangerous occupations. Maybe being a sports photographer is not on that list but it should be.