With Halloween around the corner and the Spooky Season coming to a close, everyone and their mother is scouring the Internet for the most disturbing decorations, creepiest costumes and the most spine-chilling ghost stories. But the most sinister stories are those that aren’t wished upon anyone, so unexpected and twisted that it turns most away from the nightmare fuel. That one snap, crackle and pop that’s caught on camera makes everyone in the stands or on the court or field, squeamish.
Beware.
Gipper the Ghost
Casper the Friendly Ghost would definitely be intimidated by the dead Notre Dame football star player, George Gipp, whose ghost goes by the name of Gipper and still creeps around campus. According to the Bleacher Report, in December 1920, the 25 year old college student passed away just days after his team defeated Northwestern. The All-American, Gipp, was supposedly locked out of his dorm in Washington Hall and decided to sleep outside on the front steps, unfortunately contracting pneumonia.
The first sighting of Gipper was in the 1925-26 academic year by a popular and credible Brazilian exchange student, Pio Montenegro. Montenegro reported that he saw George Gipp on a white horse, galloping up the stairs of Washington Hall. The story of Gipp has been haunting the hall and campus ever since, including some reports of footsteps on the roof and doors slamming to give residents the heebie-jeebies.
The Field of Screams
The game of baseball has been around for a very long time, so it is inevitable to have die-hard fans, even in the afterlife. The Frontier Field, a Minor League ballpark in upstate New York, is also known as “the world’s first certified haunted sports arena” by Rochester Paranormal Investigations.
According to ESPN, construction for the new stadium came to a sudden stop in 1996, when workers dug up bones. It still remains uncertain if these bones were those of a human or an animal, but this legend is often another explanation for other off-putting and strange things that happen in the ballpark. Since 1997, there have been many reports from the grounds crew and custodial staff of televisions and lights randomly turning on and off — even when there hasn’t been anyone in the rooms for days.
The Hockey Slasher
Imagine Ghostface playing hockey: all those sharp blades and weapons at their disposal, slashing the throats of players and coaches and relishing in all the bloodstains on the ice. Terrifying. But thank God, they’re not real, that could never happen… right? Wrong.
In 1989, the most horrific event in NHL history occurred, and it was broadcasted on live television. As stated by CBC, Clint Malarchuk, a goaltender for the Buffalo Sabres, attempted to stop a goal by the other team when the skater got checked from behind and flew straight toward Malarchuk with his feet in the air.
Ten seconds later, the skate of the opposing player slashes his throat and severs his jugular vein. The television crew tries to go to commercial break, but the cameras keep rolling and all you saw was the blood spewing. Fortunately, Malarchuk miraculously survived the near-fatal accident due to the team’s athletic trainer, Jim Pizzutelli, who sprinted on the ice right after it happened. The former Army medic reached into Malarchuk’s neck and closed off the bleeding until doctors arrived, ultimately saving his life.
These stories serve as a reminder to be careful this Halloween, because one second, you’re enjoying the fun and then the next, could be downright deadly.
