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Steve Gleason inducted into Washington State Hall of Fame

by Kevin Danna
Nov 29, 2014

After giving his Washington State Cougars a pregame locker room speech on Saturday, former Cougar two-sport athlete Steve Gleason was inducted into the Washington State Hall of Fame during the 2014 Apple Cup in Pullman. Gleason was a three-time All-Pac-10 honoree as a football linebacker and a captain for the baseball team as a senior center fielder.

As Brian Floyd of CougCenter writes, Gleason has been an even bigger inspiration off the field as he raises awareness and funding to find a cure for ALS. In 2011, Gleason announced that he himself was battling the disease, which according to the Mayo Clinic is a “nervous system (neurological) disease that causes muscle weakness and impacts physical function.” It’s an incurable disease that ultimately leads to death.

Gleason is the only inductee in Washington State’s 2014 Hall of Fame class, and it's the first time in school history that a class has only included a single person.

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After college, Gleason went on to play seven years in the NFL and made one of the most memorable plays of the last decade. In the New Orleans Saints' first game back in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrinae, he blocked a punt that led to a touchdown.

Watch the video above courtesy of FOX Sports 1 to see a little bit of the Cougs' ceremony for Gleason in between the first and second quarters of the Apple Cup. The Cougars players also honored Gleason by tagging their helmets with #34 stickers that read "No white flags," a favorite motto of Washington State's newest Hall of Famer.

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