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University of Oklahoma linebacker Austin Box died on May 19, 2011, at age 22, about a week after receiving his diploma, after he was found unresponsive at a friend's home in El Reno, Oklahoma, according to authorities and news reports.

A friend, J.T. Cobble, called 911 around 9:30 a.m. and told dispatchers that Box was unconscious and not breathing, according to news accounts of the released recording. "He takes pain pills, and he's not responding to me," the caller said. A dispatcher walked him through chest compressions until paramedics arrived. Box was taken to an Oklahoma City hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The state medical examiner ruled the death accidental. An autopsy found five prescription painkillers in Box's system, oxymorphone, morphine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone and oxycodone, along with the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam, ESPN reported, citing the report. Investigators listed the drug combination as the probable cause of a fatal pulmonary edema and aspiration pneumonia, and noted that Box had an enlarged heart and a history of chronic pain.

Box, a 6-foot-1, 228-pound native of Enid, had been expected to start at middle linebacker in what would have been his senior season. He led Enid High School to the Class 6A championship game in 2006 and recorded eight tackles in Oklahoma's Fiesta Bowl win over Connecticut following the 2010 season. Teammates and family later said back surgery in 2010 had put him on powerful opioid painkillers.

Oklahoma honored Box during the following season by rotating his No. 12 jersey among defensive players from game to game and adding his number to the team's helmets.

His family founded the Austin Box 12 Foundation to raise awareness about prescription-drug abuse. In 2019, his father, Craig Box, an attorney, testified in the state of Oklahoma's landmark opioid lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, telling the court that he had not realized his son was misusing painkillers until Box was hospitalized.