Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of a series profiling the lives, families and friends of several ISU students who lost their lives over the summer months.

Hours later, as the sun begins to set on Ames, cars once again whiz up and down the four lanes of 24th Street.

Some evidence remains of a three-vehicle accident earlier in the day that kept the street closed for about three hours — fresh green paint marks are littered over about 100 feet of concrete around the intersection with Kent Avenue. Tires left skid marks in the center of the crossroads.

The south sidewalk and the grass nearby is littered with tiny pieces of glass and plastic. But the occupants of most vehicles traveling west toward Stange Road or east toward Grand Avenue the evening of Aug. 6 see no lasting influence from the collision there at 1 p.m. that ultimately ended ISU student Matt Grosserode’s life.

Five days later, in his hometown of Lincoln, Neb., it seems obvious that Matt Grosserode left plenty of influence on countless others during his 22 years.

Visitors begin to trickle into St. Joseph’s Catholic Church the morning of Aug. 11.

A trickle becomes a current, and then a flood — more than 1,000 people attend Grosserode’s funeral mass.

“It was such a gift to Matt and to our family,” said Grosserode’s mother, JoAnn. “We were just overwhelmed.”

Guests included teammates and coaches from Grosserode’s 12 years as a football player — beginning in fourth grade, continuing as two-time state champion star running back for the St. Pius X Thunderbolts, and concluding with three seasons as a reserve fullback on three ISU bowl teams.

Grosserode came to the St. Pius X varsity squad in 1997 as a sophomore, and immediately became an important member of a team that would win 21 games and two state championships the next two years, said high school coach Tim Aylward.

“He wasn’t afraid to get right into the mix,” Aylward said.

Grosserode started at both running back and linebacker during the 1998 season and ran behind senior ISU guard Bob Montgomery, now a captain for the Cyclones.

“There was no one out of the [ISU] team that was as much like me as Matt was,” Montgomery said.

He said he and Grosserode didn’t get along at first, but developed a friendship as they finished high school — Montgomery a year ahead of Grosserode — and both followed Interstate 80 east to Ames.

Other members of the ISU football program said Grosserode was a perfect teammate.

“It’s hard to sit and not play,” said assistant head coach Tony Alford, who coaches Cyclone running backs. “There wasn’t anyone who cared more about this team and his teammates.”

Junior tight end Kenny Segin and junior tackle Cale Stubbe each roomed with Grosserode during part of his three years at Iowa State.

“[I’ll miss] talking with him,” Segin said. “Being able to tell him my problems, listen to his problems.”

“He’s just a person you could always depend on,” Stubbe said.

Two busloads of ISU players visited a prayer service in Ames for Grosserode Aug. 18.

“[ISU head coach Dan] McCarney teaches discipline and respect,” said John Grosserode, Matt’s father. “The Cyclone family … they are a family.”

Alford said the nearly 80 players who attended felt strongly for Grosserode and “wanted to support his family.”

After Iowa State’s loss to Boise State in the Humanitarian Bowl Dec. 31, 2002, Grosserode decided it was time to leave the program after three years of seeing little action.

“The time was right to be done with football,” John Grosserode said.

Grosserode was hired in May as an advertising representative for the Iowa State Daily. Mike Kohagen, senior in advertising and a Daily advertising representative, said Grosserode put passion into his job.

“The Daily was his new football game,” Kohagen said. “When he knew that football wasn’t going to be his path to take anymore, he knew he could be successful [elsewhere].”

The accident

Matt Grosserode, senior in finance and a former ISU football player, died Aug. 6 from injuries sustained in a car accident at the intersection at 24th Street and Kent Avenue in Ames. He was 22.

According to the Ames Police accident report, Jinny Krogman, senior in apparel merchandising, design and production, was driving a pickup truck and attempting to turn from Kent Avenue onto 24th Street. She ran the stop sign on Kent Avenue and drove into westbound traffic.

Krogman’s vehicle was then struck by a 13-ton semitrailer truck driven by Dion Daubenmeier of Cedar Rapids.

The momentum of Krogman’s truck, traveling south, pushed the semitrailer truck across 24th Street’s dividing line and into the path of Grosserode’s vehicle, traveling east. Both Grosserode’s and Krogman’s vehicles were totaled. Ames police officers were called to the scene at 1:04 p.m.

Grosserode was extricated from his car by mechanical means and taken to Mary Greeley Medical Center where he later died.

Krogman was taken to Mary Greeley Medical Center and later released. Daubenmeier and one passenger were not seriously injured.

According to the police report, neither Krogman nor Grosserode was wearing a seatbelt.

A search of Iowa court records showed no charges filed as of Sunday as a result of the accident.