The University of Minnesota-Morris confirmed Monday what many suspected after their football team won the homecoming game in dramatic fashion Saturday — 20-year-old UMM junior Richard Thomas Rose was killed by a falling goal post during the post-game celebration.

"The autopsy revealed Mr. Rose died of head trauma from the falling goal post," Stevens County coroner Michael Busian said in a release. "No other cause of death was identified."

The wild celebration came after a double-overtime win in the last regular-season game played at Cougar Field. The university will open a new facility for the 2006 season.

"I've wondered for years why they let this stuff happen," University of Wisconsin political science professor Donald Downs said. "Taking down goal posts like this — students don't have the right to storm the field after a game and tear down a goal post."

UMM spokesperson Judy Riley said she does not believe any party was negligent and added she does not think the university will discipline any of the students involved in the tragedy.

"I'm not aware that there was anything done that was incorrect that [we] would hold anybody responsible [for]," Riley said.

Downs, however, said both the university and some of the students could face legal repercussions for their involvement in the actions leading to Rose's death.

"[The students] are the ones that did it, [so] they're the ones that have the clearest liability," Downs said. "The university didn't do any action, and there is a distinction [between action] that causes the harm and inaction that causes the harm."

When asked what actions the university took to prevent students from storming the field — strategically placing police officers where the stands and the field meet, for example — Riley said she could not comment "due to the oncoming investigation."

"I don't like the idea of the university having to take all sorts of precautions against irresponsible behavior," Downs said. "I'm not going to say they have an obligation to [provide police security], but the answer by the law is you probably do."

According to Riley, the university is planning "a couple of things" for the student body to do together as the small rural Minnesota campus of roughly 1,700 students attempts to cope with its tragic and senseless loss.

"A memorial service is being planned," Riley said. "Counseling on the campus has been made available for our students, faculty and staff."

Rose, a student coach and member of the men's basketball team, was a native of Benton City, Wash.