'Leon will never be forgotten here'
Cougar players, staff vow to keep Bender's memory alive
Posted: Monday August 17, 1998 09:29 PM
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Bender's No. 91 jersey already has been retired by the Cougars Otto Greule/Allsport |
PULLMAN, Washington (AP) -- It's been 11 weeks since Leon Bender's shocking death, and his former teammates at Washington State are struggling to deal with the tragedy.
Team members are dedicating the 1998 football season to Bender, and will wear the initials "L.B." on their helmets.
"A sticker is nice and all," said Gary Holmes, who played beside Bender at defensive tackle for two years. "But that don't make the situation."
The Cougars have also retired his No. 91 jersey, and introduced a yearly football award for the player who shows some semblance of Bender's spark.
"Leon will never be forgotten here," said WSU defensive-line coach Mike Walker. "He's already a legend. We got to the Rose Bowl (last season), and Leon was an integral part of that."
"He was nice to everybody -- no exceptions," said defensive end Eboni Wilson. "You just don't find a lot of people like that."
Bender died May 30 in Marietta, Georgia, at the home of an associate of his agent. He had been preparing for his rookie season in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders.
The final autopsy report was released privately in late June to family members and to the Raiders. It basically confirmed the initial report, that Bender died a natural death related to a "seizure disorder" that had shadowed him for years.
Some of Bender's WSU teammates had known of this disorder, and a few knew he took daily medication to control it. As far as they knew, he had suffered only one seizure during his WSU career, the day before the Alamo Bowl in 1994.
While a detective for the Cobb County police department in Georgia has speculated Bender might have stopped taking his medication, those who knew him feel that is unlikely.
"If that was his condition, and these pills helped his condition, and he has a daughter and a wife, and he's made it to the NFL -- I don't see why he wouldn't take it," said Love Jefferson, the Cougar tight end who had been especially close to Bender.
Widow Liza Bender isn't buying it either. "Never -- I never had to bug him [to take his pills]," she said.
She added Bender suffered three seizures in April 1995.
"It's the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life, and it was a difficult thing for him," she said.
"The day before we flew down for the draft [last April], he almost had another one," Liza Bender said.
"Sometimes he could kind of feel an aura come on; he could tell he was getting ready to have one. I remember him yelling and screaming to me from the bedroom, and he was kind of standing there stiff, and he got control of it," she said.
Their 2-year-old daughter, Imani, is having a tough time.
Her mother is not sugar-coating the situation; she tells Imani that her father has died. But she cannot grasp it. She keeps asking, "Why doesn't Daddy call us?"
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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