Crime & Safety

Philip Lutzenkirchen, Standout On 2010 Auburn Football Championship Team, Dies In Car Wreck

Auburn star was a Marietta native and attended Lassiter High School.

Philip Lutzenkirchen, a Marietta native who helped lead the Auburn Tigers football team to the 2010 National Championship, died early Sunday in a car wreck, according to multiple news outlets. He was 23.

Lutzenkirchen was a standout at Lassiter High School, just north of Atlanta before joining the Tigers, where he caught 59 passes for 628 yards and 14 touchdowns, an Auburn record for a tight end.

The accident occurred in Troup County, just southeast of LaGrange, at approximately 3:06 a.m. Sunday morning, Master Trooper B.N. Talley of the Georgia State Patrol told The Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, GA.

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He said Lutzenkirchen was a passenger in a 2006 Chevy Tahoe with a total of four people inside. The driver missed a stop sign and drove through an intersection and into a churchyard, where the vehicle flipped several times.

Lutzenkirchen and the driver, identified as Joseph Davis, were both killed at the scene.

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"I’m deeply saddened by the untimely passing of Philip Lutzenkirchen. He was a great young man who touched the lives of everyone he knew in a positive way," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said in a university release Sunday. "On the field, Philip was a great player and competitor, but more importantly, he was a great teammate and friend off the field. My thoughts and prayers are with Philip’s parents, Mike and Mary, and all of his family and friends who are grieving his passing. This is a sad day for the entire Auburn family. I find peace knowing that even though Philip was taken from us too soon, that he lived his life to the fullest, leaving a lifetime of great memories for his family and friends to cherish forever."


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