Bradley Jameson chose to leave his native Texas for the University of Mississippi because he wanted to attend school “in a community that was all about the college.”

Oxford, a town of about 14,000 people built around a historic town square and a love of its Ole Miss Rebels, seemed just the place he was looking for. Jameson’s stay in Oxford was cut tragically short when the 18-year-old freshman died Saturday after a bizarre accident.

Jameson died from massive head trauma after falling out of a tree outside the Beta Theta Pi house on the campus’ Fraternity Row, authorities said. He had apparently climbed the tree to retrieve a football that had gotten stuck during a late night game of catch.

Lafayette County Coroner Lonnie Weaver said Jameson fell about 12 feet and hit his head on a concrete patio at about 3:45 a.m. He later died in a Memphis hospital.

A university official says it doesn’t appear that alcohol or drugs were a factor in the accident. The coroner has ordered a toxicology test to be sure. Weaver said the results of the test should be in this week.

Meanwhile, the proud parents who were at the Ole Miss campus last weekend to visit the university and their son, ended up planning a funeral for their eldest child.

“It’s something that no parent should have to go through,” his aunt, Jeanne Rogert, said in a telephone interview from the family’s home in Fort Worth, Texas.

Jameson will be buried Thursday after services at All Saints Episcopal Chapel in Fort Worth, Texas, at 1:30 p.m. Thompson, Haverson, and Cole Funeral Home is handling the arrangements and the family is setting up a memorial in Jameson’s name.

“Bradley had a wonderful sense of humor. It was dry. He was a young man of few words. He loved his family and he was loved by many, many people,” Rogert said. “He wanted to go to a school were the community was all about the college. He felt that Ole Miss met that. He was also interested in the international business program.”

Jameson was a graduate of All Saints’ Episcopal School in Fort Worth, Texas. He was an avid soccer player and his aunt said he held a school football record for longest field goal — 43 yards.

Hundreds of people gathered at the school Sunday for a vigil in honor of Jameson. Back in Mississippi, students are mourning, too. The fraternity that owned the house where the accident occurred canceled all events this week. Jameson was not a member of the fraternity but was hanging out with some members he had befriended when the accident happened, said Scott Stewart, Beta Theta Pi president, in a statement released through the university.

“This is a tragic accident,” Stewart said. “Our hearts are broken and our prayers go to his family.”

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