The family of Augustus “Gus” Lee, the University of Richmond football player who committed suicide early this week, will donate his brain to the Veterans Administration-Boston University-Concussion Legacy Foundation Brain Bank
The bank studies traumatic brain injuries and the neurodegenerative illness chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
The 20-year-old Lee was found dead in his snow-covered car just off the Richmond campus at 1:35 a.m. Tuesday, according to police. The Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported the cause of death was suicide by asphyxiation.
“I just wonder if something happened,” his mother, Phyllis Lee, said of a possible brain injury caused by contact sports. “Because what he did was so out of character for him. It’s like, OK, wow, something has taken over this sweet kid that I never would imagine would do something like this. And that just led me to think if something had taken over him, maybe it’s his own brain that’s working against him.”
The Concussion Legacy Foundation is a nonprofit organization that studies brain trauma in athletes and other at-risk groups, including veterans.
Since 2008, co-founder and chief executive Chris Nowinski has solicited donations of brains for researchers at Boston University to study. That research contributed to a growing medical consensus that links football to CTE, which the NFL acknowledged in 2016.
“We sincerely appreciate the contribution to research and we hope the information we’re able to provide is helpful to (Lee’s family),” Nowinski said. “It’s certainly going to be helpful to the athlete community.”
Lee’s mother said her son did not have a history of lingering health problems after concussions, but said he certainly suffered concussions when he was younger, including once in middle school when he was knocked unconscious during a lacrosse game. Doctors did not clear him to return to the field for several months after the injury.
Lee was a redshirt freshman walk-on defensive back who mostly played on special teams for the Spiders.
Midway through this season, Lee came to his parents’ house in Vienna, Va., with bronchitis and when he went back to school he was not the same, his mother said.
They began speaking on the phone every day, which was unusual, his mother said, and Lee told her that on some days he was not eating.
His mother asked if he was OK and he told her he was fine, simply tired. But a few days after Thanksgiving, he called home late at night in tears and said he was driving home.
“He said, ‘I’m so lonely. It’s awful here. I need to come home,'” his mother recalled.
Lee saw a mental health professional the next day, who told Lee’s parents she wanted to set up a neurological screening during winter break. Lee went back to campus with final exams upcoming.
His final two exams were scheduled for Monday, but Lee’s roommate went hours without seeing him that day and called Lee’s parents, who alerted university police.
City of Richmond Police located Lee’s body in his car an hour later on College Road, a well-traveled street near the campus.
–Kentucky running back Benny Snell, considered one of the best players in Wildcats history, announced Friday that he will skip his senior year and enter the 2019 NFL Draft. However, Snell said he will play against Penn State in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day.
“To the BBN (Big Blue Nation), you’ve become a part of my family,” Snell said in a video posted on Twitter. “You took a kid in from Ohio and made it feel like home, but there comes a time you have to leave home to build a life of your own. That’s what I’m about to do. I have decided to enter the NFL draft and pursue a dream I have had as long as I can remember. I will be taking some of the best memories of my life with me.”
Snell was an unheralded recruit who rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of the last three seasons and helped the Wildcats to a bowl game for the third consecutive year. He has 3,754 yards in his career and was selected first-team All-Southeastern Conference this year.
The Athletic ranks Snell as the No. 10 running back in the 2019 draft class. He ranks second in the SEC with 1,305 yards rushing this season and needs 107 yards against Penn State to break Kentucky’s career rushing record of 3,835 yards. He already has tied or broken 13 Kentucky records.
–Memphis running back Darrell Henderson will not play in the team’s upcoming bowl game against Wake Forest. Henderson’s decision to bypass the Birmingham Bowl on Dec. 22 was expected after he announced Wednesday that he planned to enter the 2019 NFL Draft.
The 5-foot-9, 200-pound Henderson had a spectacular junior season for the Tigers, rushing for 1,909 yards and a nation-leading 22 touchdowns. He capped his college career by running for 210 yards and three scores, including touchdowns of 82 and 62 yards, in a 56-41 loss to unbeaten Central Florida in the American Athletic Conference championship game on Dec. 1.
It was the third 200-yard game and the ninth 100-yard game of the season for Henderson, who finished second to Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor in rushing and third nationally in yards per carry (8.9). Henderson, who rushed for 1,154 yards as a sophomore, leaves Memphis as the school’s No. 2 career rushing leader behind only DeAngelo Williams.
Junior Patrick Taylor is expected to start in Henderson’s place against Wake Forest. He also surpassed 1,000 yards rushing this season and ran for 15 scores. Taylor, who ran for 118 yards and a TD in the AAC title game, also ran for 13 scores as a sophomore.
