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Darwin Awards
2008 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

How hard is your head?

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

On April 30, 1993, Slobodan Jankovic, fuming at a call that fouled him out of the game, rammed his head against a cement block in anger and suffered a broken neck that left him paralyzed.

The 6-foot-8-inch Serb is the center for Panionios of Athens, which was playing in the semifinals of the Greek Championships.

It happened Wednesday night with six minutes left and Jankovic's team trailing Panathinaikos by 4 points.

With several players fighting for a rebound, the referee called a fifth foul on Jankovic. Waving his arms in disbelief that he had fouled out, Jankovic moved toward the backboard and rammed his head against the cement support of the basket after being called for a fifth foul that put him out of a semifinal game in the Greek championship playoffs on Wednesday night.

The blow fractured his neck, damaged Jankovic's spinal cord and left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Being bound to a wheelchair, he started to gain a lot of weight and eventually died of heart failure on June 29, 2006 while on a holiday cruise on the island of Rhodes.

Submitted on 06/08/2008

Submitted by: Pietro Di Tomasso
Reference: NY Times, Wikipedia

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

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Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
Frankly I'm surprised we don't seem to have ever received this story before now. I've seen plenty of sports figures get angry at a call and punch/kick/headbutt objects but never a concrete wall. What did he expect to happen? Thanks for sending this in, Pietro.


James said:
Definitely Keep: Honorable Mention
There is definitely a deeper meaning to the old phrase "It's only a game!" now that I've read this story! Thanks, Pietro!


Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection

Hardback. 240 pages. Autographed.
$15
A fresh collection of magnificent misadventures! Lust, Vanity, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, and Wrath extract an evolutionary toll on the wicked. Salute the owner of an equipment training school who demonstrates the dangers of driving a forklift by failing to survive the filming of his own safety video. Witness the man who becomes a victim of his own strange passion for jumping into rivers. Heed the honest bricklayer who loses a battle of wits with 300 pounds of tools.

This book includes more History of the Awards, Gordon's Law, and 10 discussions of evolution, including speciation and the role of verbal memes in civilization.

Autographed by Author!

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