Richard “Rick” Stephens ’71/86 is a Shocker on a mission.
A former starting offensive lineman on the Shocker football team, he is one of only nine survivors of the Oct. 2, 1970 plane crash on Mt. Trelease in the Colorado Rockies that killed 31 WSU football players, coaches, university administrators, spouses and boosters.
In their honor and to raise money for the 1970 Football Memorial Scholarship fund, Stephens is set to begin a 550-mile bicycle ride in Wichita Sept. 25, planning to arrive at the crash site Oct. 2. He will dedicate segments of the ride to each of the 31 who perished.
The last segment, he explains, will be in honor of crash survivor Randy Jackson ’75, who died in July 2010 from pancreatic cancer, and John “Mike” Knol ’72, a close friend and teammate who died in August 2009.
Stephens will stick to back roads on his memorial ride, and while he admits there are hazards to the undertaking, he says, “It’s worse for your health sitting at home just watching TV.” He’ll be easy to spot in his sports gear: a bright Shocker yellow jersey and black bicycle shorts. “I’ll look like a big bumblebee out there,” he says with a laugh.
