High school football hug photo goes viral

A photo of a hug between opposing players at the end of a high school football game in Iowa went viral this week because of the wonderful moment of sportsmanship it captured.

Wapsie Valley beat Grundy Center 21-17 last Friday night, but the loss wasn’t what was on the minds of the Grundy Center players after the game. Instead, they were thinking of Wapsie Valley sophomore quarterback Andrew Buzynski, who collapsed after suffering a head injury at the end of the game, a few plays after scoring the winning touchdown. Buzynski was taken to the hospital after collapsing.

The man who took the photo of Grundy Center’s Jordan Graham and Jordan Stoner embracing Wapsie Valley’s Jake Kuhlmann is Justin Scott, a photographer in Iowa. Scott posted the picture on his photography business’ Facebook page and his story of the photo went viral. It’s received nearly 3,000 likes and over 1,600 shares since being posted on Monday night.

After the photo began receiving national attention, the players from the photo were interviewed by local news outlets. Graham’s thoughts are sure to make you smile.

“There’s more to football than just winning and losing and when you see somebody that went down like Andrew did, you just feel human and feel empathy for their school and their community,” Graham told KWWL in Iowa.

“For a while we just sat there and embraced. After a while I just let him know that us as the Spartans would be pulling for their community and praying for Andrew.”

If that story made you feel good, you’ll enjoy many of the other excellent heartwarming stories we’ve shared at LBS.