OUR VIEW: Aggies rally around basketball player

Our heartfelt prayers go out to Danny Berger, the men’s basketball player who collapsed during practice and had to be flown by medical helicopter to the Murray hospital.
   
Few of us in the Statesman office have ever been so close to something so frightening, and we’re willing to bet a vast majority of the student body at large hasn’t either. But perhaps even more awe-inspiring than Berger’s near-death and tragedy is the miracle he embodies as he lays in his Salt Lake County hospital bed. He’s alive.
   
Berger is in critical condition and there is still a looming chance he could take a turn for the worse, but he’s alive.
   
He almost wasn’t.
   
If it weren’t for the quick thinking of the USU Athletic Trainers, most notably Mike Williams, Berger probably wouldn’t be lying in the hospital bed surrounded by his family and teammates.
   
Berger’s tragedy has brought Utah State Aggies together in a strong bond. Someone on Twitter called it an #AggieFamily.
   
This sort of thing has happened before, and each time it does, we as Aggies become bound tighter and tighter to each other and the campus.
   
Last year when then-freshman quarterback Chuckie Keeton was injured before halftime of the Hawaii game, Aggies rallied around their fallen hero. He could have broken his neck and died, sending USU’s hopes of competing in the WAC away with the slam of an ambulance door.
   
Hope was not lost. We rallied around the injured Keeton, as well as our respected rising workhorse Adam Kennedy. Aggie Nation became a more tightly knit community and saw success on the gridiron.
   
When Brandon Wright crashed on his motorcycle and was trapped beneath a burning car, compassionate citizens ran into the blaze, lifted the wreckage and pulled him from certain death to safety. The nation witnessed the courage of the USU community as several national news outlets broadcast the remarkable footage.
   
It’s magical. It’s a miracle. It’s the experience of a lifetime. It’s being an Aggie.