BOULDER — The day before the annual Colorado spring football game, roughly 150 people gathered at the CU Champions Center to pay tribute to former Buff Rashaan Salaam.
Salaam, the 1994 Heisman Trophy winner, took his own life in early December. It was an event that stunned not only the close-knit CU community, but athletic departments across the nation.
But if there was any silver lining to the tragic cloud of Salaam's death, it is that it provided another reminder, a learning moment that may serve to be one more piece of Salaam's proud legacy at CU: the mental health of current, past and future student-athletes at Colorado must always be an integral part of the equation.