The Wichita Northwest High School football team will be wearing "LG" stickers on their helmets for the rest of the season in honor of Linda Gregory, a beloved team photographer who was fatally injured in a sideline accident Monday night. The 69-year-old was taking photos of a junior varsity game when two players engaged in a block moved out of bounds and collided with her. She was knocked over and hit her head on the concrete apron of the track at Bishop Carroll High School, the Wichita Eagle reports. Husband Mel Gregory says she is on life support until her organs can be donated.
"RIP Linda! You will never know how much you meant to us," the team wrote on its Facebook page. Northwest football coach Steve Martin tells the Eagle that Gregory was "an amazing person who breathed life into our students here at Northwest. She would go out of her way to make each kid feel important in her own unique way." Gregory, who had a photography business, first volunteered to take photos at Northwest games almost eight years and showed up with Mel every week. She also took photos for the League 42 youth baseball league and was active on organizing committees. Friends say she quickly forged bonds with students and helped mentor budding photographers.
Martin tells the Washington Post that the play happened quickly Monday night and Gregory had picked up her tripod and was trying to get out of the way Monday when the players ran into her. He says she was a "fixture" in the school community. "Losing her puts a hole in our program." Former Northwest football star Breece Hall, now a New York Jets player, praised the Gregorys in a Facebook post Tuesday. "These are the most genuine, polite, kind, giving, whole hearted people," he wrote. (More Wichita stories.)
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