Former University of Colorado football player Gary Washington died Monday after a battle with cancer. He was 59.

Washington was a graduate of Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, where he rushed for 6,202 yards in three seasons and won a state championship in the 100-yard dash with a time of 9.7 seconds. He went on to play running back and defensive back for the Buffaloes in the mid-1970s.

In 1977 in his last game for CU, he scored on a 72-yard touchdown run in a 23-0 win over Kansas State at Folsom Field. He was carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates, and the fans gave him a standing ovation

That play ranks as the 31st-longest rush in CU history.

Former Colorado coach Bill Mallory remembered Washington as an inspiration to the whole team.

“The bottom line, we were just glad to have Gary involved in our program,” Mallory said Tuesday from his home in Bloomington, Ind. “I had never encountered anything like that in my coaching career. It was a whole new situation, but I wasn’t going to allow it from keeping him involved on our team. The way he handled it, he was a great mentor for all the other players.”

Mallory said the communication lines were formed with Washington through signs from the sidelines.

Washington was named the Colorado High School Coaches Association’s most courageous athlete in 1973 (the Fred Steinmark Award) and participated in the 1973 World Games in Sweden. He also has been honored by the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, and made a trip to the White House in 1973 to visit with President Richard Nixon.

---

Youtube.

---

---