After Student Death, Wisconsin-Stout Punishes 10 Hockey Players

Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Stout said on Wednesday that they had permanently barred two players from the men's hockey team and suspended eight others for the upcoming season for violating the university's code of conduct for athletes -- actions taken after the two barred players were charged for their roles in a fellow student's death. The university's announcement said the players had been punished for violating the code's "guidelines for behavior, both on and off the field, including actions while engaging in high risk alcohol use." It referred only obliquely to the underlying situation that prompted the suspensions: the Sept. 18 death of a Stout student, which witnesses said came about when one of the hockey players -- after an argument in a local bar -- allegedly pushed the student off his bicycle and into a wall, causing fatal head injuries.