While playing racquetball Tuesday night at Irving Gym, sophomore Philip Tobin was injured when he hit a glass door and shattered it.
Tobin was taken by ambulance to Ball Memorial Hospital with cuts on his legs, left arm, knuckles and ear, he said.
"He was coherent and understood what happened," Dan Byrnes, director of Sports Facilities and Recreation Services said. "We filed a report in case he needed it for insurance purposes."
Tobin was playing racquetball with two friends when he hit the ball, took two steps back, hit the glass and it shattered, he said.
Tobin said he didn't feel much pain when the accident occurred.
"I was calm," Tobin said. "There was blood. I just started making jokes right away."
Tobin said he and his friends were disappointed with the way Irving Gym workers handled themselves after they respondeded to his accident.
"One guy asked if I was bleeding," Tobin said. "He asked if I wanted a Band-Aid and he just gave me a towel."
Other workers came to Tobin's aid and called an ambulance, Tobin said.
The accident occurred at 9:14 p.m., according to the Ball State police report. Tobin said he was at the hospital until 3 a.m.
Tobin said he plays racquetball almost every day and will continue to play in Irving Gym once he recovers from his injuries.
Tobin did not comment about potentially filing any legal action against Ball State University.
Tobin's accident was the first time a person has shattered the glass at the racquetball courts, Byrnes said.
"In 15 years we've never had an issue," Byrnes said. "The company says it's more rare than frequent, those things shattering. I don't think there is any worry at all for students to have to play racquetball or wallyball in there. I think they'll be safe."
Recreation Services has measured the door opening and called Ellis Pearson Glass Back Walls, the company that supplies the glass, to order a new door.
"They're designed to shatter like a windshield and so it's not like a pane of glass where there are extremely sharp edges," Byrnes said.
Rec Services hopes to have a new door installed in a couple of weeks, Byrnes said.
"We have nine other courts so we should be able to satisfy the need to play in an hour or so. So we should be in good shape," Byrnes said.
Before the door can be replaced, Recreation Services must receive the quote for the price and get a purchase order.
"In an instance like this, the student is not responsible for that [the cost] unless they would have done it intentionally for that purpose," Byrnes said. "He was just playing, so there was no intent there. So it will be the cost to Rec Services to replace that."
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