On Friday night, Matt James' family gathered in Ohio to celebrate an uncle's 50th birthday party. The revelry came to an incomprehensibly brutal and tragic end with news delivered by one phone call.
James, a hulking offensive lineman and Notre Dame's top recruit in the Class of 2010., died in a fall from a Panama City, hotel balcony while on a spring break trip with dozens of classmates from Cincinnati's St. Xavier High School.
Panama City Beach police were not releasing any information late last night, but television station WHJG cited police as saying a teenager fell over the balcony railing of his motel room at 6:26 Friday evening and apparently died instantly.
James reportedly fell from the third floor balcony of the Days Inn Hotel on Front Beach Road, according to police reports cited by WJHG-TV.
It was the second fatal spring-break fall in Panama City in less than 10 days. On March 24, a 19-year-old man from Georgia, Brandon Kohler, fell to his death from a fifth-floor balcony at Holiday Terrace Motel.
Dan Rudolph, the father of current Irish tight end Kyle Rudolph, was at the James family gathering and was overcome by the news.
"His mom and dad were here when they got the call," Dan Rudolph told the Chicago Tribune late last night. "The whole James family was here. I can't believe that happened."
The utter disbelief was understandable and pervasive, as a Facebook page titled "R.I.P. Matt James" already was posted last night. James was a 6-foot-6, 291-pound behemoth just one week shy of his 18th birthday, and he was new Irish coach Brian Kelly's first impact recruit, ranked the nation's No. 86 prospect overall by Rivals.com.
Reached late last night by the Tribune, Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said the school was still in the process of gathering information and therefore likely would have no official statement until today at the earliest.
But Swarbrick acknowledged an athletics department "stricken" by the reports from Florida. Gary Massa, the father of Luke Massa, a Notre Dame recruit and one of James' best friends, estimated late Friday that some 40 St. Xavier students had made the spring break trip to Florida.
Gary Massa said his son called to deliver the news that James had died from the fall. He added that St. Xavier parents staying nearby had gathered James' classmates on the trip and brought in a chaplain to help work through the tragedy.
"It was just wonderful to see the attention he got this year and he handed all of that very well," Gary Massa said of James. "He treated people very well. He was always respectful. He was just a first-class kid, that's all. That's one of the things our son liked so much about him. He was just a gentle giant."
Said Dan Rudolph: "(He was) the greatest kid in the world."
Indeed, Matt James didn't solidify his decision to attend Notre Dame until the night before signing day this past February. When he did, he called up Luke Massa to deliver the news, and Gary Massa said his son emerged after that conversation "just as excited as could be."
Now, today, Gary Massa was to get in his car and drive to meet his son halfway from Florida to Cincinnati, and bring him home after a hug.