You are so missed!
The following is dedicated to the memory of
Edward A. Gadson
whose life and unique gifts inspired the establishment of this nonprofit organization.
Please visit the link below to leave personal messages/read messages about Eddie.
www.legacy.com/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=14324176
Please visit www.eddiescholarshipfund.com for more information the CSU scholarship
dedicated in Edward's nam
eddieandfriendsinc@hotmail.com
or call: 404-358-1313/404-358-3190
Charleston Southern rises through tragedies.
Published: Monday, November 21st, 2005
By PETE IACOBELLI
COLUMBIA , S.C. (AP) - When Charleston Southern kicker Nick Ellis saw the scoreboard flashing, 'Big South Champions' and the '21' lit up in the yard-line indicator, he thought of his friend and roommate, Bucs receiver Eddie Gadson.
'It was his number,' said Ellis, remembering Gadson, all-Big South Conference wide out who died in a car accident last June. 'It was if he was saying, 'Hey boys, here I am.' Ellis choked up recalling the Bucs improbable 34-27 win over Coastal
The scene was only slightly less jubilant Friday night when the Buccaneer basketball team broke a 23-game losing streak to city rival - and mid-major success story -
While the two landmark victories may have comprised the greatest sports weekend in school history, they also brought moments of joy to an athletic department and campus struck by the tragic deaths of Gadson and freshman pitcher Grant Ringenberg earlier this month. Ringenberg fell into a coma and died Nov. 8 after a fight with another student.
Charleston Southern is a school of about 2,600 students affiliated with the
Gadson was a walk-on receiver who quickly became one of the team leaders. He led the league with 69 catches, 792 yards receiving and nine TDs. Gadson's death left a large impact on the close-knit team, said Ellis, who attended Union Grove High with Gadson in McDonough, Ga., outside of Atlanta. Ellis had 17 teammates stay at his family's home for Gadson's funeral.
When the Bucs got ready for the season, Gadson remained in their thoughts. His locker became a memorial, Ellis said. The Bucs field carried 'EG 21' logos this season in Gadson's memory.
Eddie's father told the players if a conference title was on the line against Coastal Carolina, he would be there to watch - a circumstance that seemed unlikely with Charleston Southern, 1-11 two years ago, generally picked fifth in the five-team league. But there were the Bucs facing the Chants for part of the Big South championship. And the ending left
Coastal led 24-10 with less than three minutes remaining. A quick
Charleston's Collin Drafts threw a touchdown pass to Markus Murry. Ellis' point-after sent the game to overtime. After trading field goals in the first OT, Andre Copeland scored on a 2-yard run for the Bucs. Coastal could not match, touching off a wild celebration where both goal posts came down. 'There's no way you cannot say some type of divine intervention was involved,' Ellis said.
True to his word, Edward Gadson attended and was awarded a game ball by coach Jay Mills. 'You think about how hard that is to know your son is supposed to be out there,'
The weekend began Friday night with the Bucs' basketball win. The school was still
Radebaugh was pleased, but says there's much improvement to make in his first season. He understands, though, the impact victories like these have on all the students. 'We're very aware of what happens on our campus,' Radebaugh said. 'We just have allowed God to use these things to strengthen us.' Small, the AD, says students and athletes have helped each other cope during the tragic times and celebrated together this past weekend. Many of Ringenberg's baseball teammates were at the basketball victory and helped bring down the goal posts, happily shouting with Gadson's football teammates. 'Sports can really bring people together to celebrate,' Small said. 'We definitely saw that.'
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November 21, 2005
With Eddie Gadson watching from heaven, the Charleston Southern football team completed a miracle comeback and defeated defending Big South conference champion Coastal Carolina, 34-27, in double overtime to capture a share of the 2005 championship. Gadson, a CSU receiver who died tragically last summer in an automobile accident, would have been proud of his teammates, who completed a 7-4 season by winning their final five games. And the way they won the title game was nothing short of divine intervention.
Coastal
Drafts quickly ran the offense on the field and completed a four-yard pass to Markus Murry. Nick Ellis’ extra point tied the game at 24 and sent the game into overtime. Each team kicked field goals in the first overtime with Ellis nailing a 41-yarder to force the second extra period.
On CSU’s second overtime possession, Andre Copeland scored from two yards out for a 34-27 lead. Coastal
“It’s unbelievable,” said CSU head coach Jay Mills. “God is certainly smiling on us today, as is Eddie Gadson. I could not be more proud of a group of young men who have faced so much adversity but never gave up on the dream.” Drafts finished the game with 250 yards passing, completing 20-of-37 passes and tossing two scoring passes. Maurice Price caught eight passes for 74 yards and freshman Markus Murry caught seven passes for 76 yards. Running back Andre Copeland finished the season as the Big South’s leading rusher, picking up 98 yards on 20 carries.
On the defensive side, junior linebacker Jada Ross became the CSU single-season tackle leader, racking up 17 hits on the day. Ross finishes the season with 128 total tackles. Safety C.J. Hirschman added eight tackles, including two tackles for loss, while seniors Tavares Shorter and Adam DeGraffenreid each picked up seven tackles in their final game as Buccaneers.
Patrick Hall paced Coastal
Both defenses settled in for most of the rest of the second half as each team punted several times during the half. Late in the second, however, the Chanticleers put together an impressive 12-play, 85-yard drive, ending with Patrick Hall’s 10-yard run with 3:11 left in the second period and pushing Coastal Carolina to a 10-7 lead...Charleston Southern began the second-half with a pooch kickoff that was recovered by the Buccaneers at the CCU 40-yard line. CSU reached the Coastal
Coastal Carolina responded by going 80 yards on 11 plays and getting a three-yard run by Aundres Perkins with 8:14 remaining in the third, pushing the lead to 17-7. CSU’s defense came up with a big stop late in the third when Marvin McHellon blocked a 32-yard field goal to end a Chanticleer scoring threat. CSU took possession and moved down inside the CCU 30 as the game reached the fourth period. Drafts connected with Murry to reach the five-yard line before the Bucs were forced to settle for an Ellis 22-yard field goal with 9:59 left, cutting the CCU lead to 17-10.
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Charleston Southern dedicating season to fallen teammate Eddie Gadson, who rose from walk-on to all-conference pick.
The Post and Courier -
BY JEFF HARTSELL
Ryan Robertson looked nervously at the other freshmen, anxious to see how he stacked up with the rest of
That would have been Eddie Gadson, the quintessential little guy with a big heart, and a personality to match. "Eddie was the first guy I met at
Gadson's rise from a little-recruited walk-on player to a starting receiver and record-setting all-conference pick for CSU's football team--coupled with a smile that rarely left his face--made him one of the Buccaneers' best and most popular players. And that made his death in a car accident over the summer all the more devastating for his teammates, who began fall practice on Monday with a hole in their lineup and an even bigger one in their hearts. "Not having Eddie will definitely take away from us," said junior quarterback Collin Drafts. "He was our main guy, and so other people will have to step up. But if anything good can come out of this, it is that we can dedicate this year to Eddie, and never forget him."
'A GOOD COCKY'
Eddie Gadson was an Air Force brat, born in the Philippines to a military couple, Edward and Paula Gadson. As the family traveled the world, Eddie played high school football in Okinawa, an island southwest of
But it didn't take Eddie long to make an impact. In the second game of the 2003 season--coming off a 64-10 loss to The Citadel--coach Jay Mills wasted little time in playing freshman quarterback Drafts and Gadson, who found some chemistry that day. "We were just out there playing," Drafts recalled. "I barely knew the plays, and I'm sure Eddie didn't know what he was doing. But I'd drop back and there was this guy wide open over the middle. I'd throw it high, behind him, but he went up and grabbed it and made me look good. He wasn't the fastest guy, but he could catch anything you threw at him."
When Gadson caught six passes for 90 yards and a TD two weeks later in a 17-14 loss at Presbyterian, it looked like CSU had discovered a gem. But the next day, Gadson decided to play pickup basketball and caught a shoulder in the cheek, breaking three bones in his face and costing him the rest of the season. But that didn't slow Eddie. Mills had already decided to reward him with a scholarship, and Gadson attacked the off season workout program and emerged last year as a genuine go-to receiver. He led the Big South Conference with 69 catches, 792 yards and seven touchdowns and helped CSU to a 5-5 record, the first non-losing season in school history.
"He was cocky, but it was a good cocky," Drafts said. "He was probably the most popular guy on our team. Nobody ever thought he was arrogant, but he just knew what he could do. He'd let the DB know, 'Hey, I'm going to run by you and catch this ball.' But it was in a friendly manner, and I think that's why everybody liked Eddie and got along with him."
Eddie was so eager for this season that he got upset at Mills when the coach would not allow him to participate in the first 5:30 a.m. off season workout because of a sore hamstring. "He was never going to backslide," Mills said. "He was always going to be working harder, and his goal was to take it to the next level. Physically, he should not have been able to do it. But he's one of those guys I would never bet against."
EG 21
Drafts was at his job as a lifeguard in Beaufort last June when his cell phone rang. It was his teammate, kicker Nick Ellis, who had also played at Union Grove High in Stockbridge. "Nick was completely out of it, he had just lost it," Drafts said. "He said, 'I've got some bad news for you. Eddie's been killed in a car accident.' It didn't compute at first. And when it did, my jaw dropped and I was out of it for the rest of the day."
Gadson died in an early morning accident on June 17 near his home in Stockbridge. The news shocked the CSU campus and the Bucs players, most of whom had gone home for summer break. Mills and his assistant coaches made sure they called every player on the team. "It was difficult, because we were not all together," Drafts said. "We couldn't talk to each other about it. I was calling as many people as I could, and a lot of them didn't even know about it yet." Said Mills: "We had to assist a grieving campus and a grieving team and a couple of mourning parents as best we could. I told the team, we are all going to have different durations of mourning, different intensities of mourning. But we will work through it together."
At the funeral, a CSU lineman got up and told a story that said much about Eddie. The lineman had been joking around in the weight room when Eddie told him, "Why don't you keep your mouth shut and get some work done?" Said Mills: "He said this to a big lineman. And the lineman said, 'Who is this guy?' But then he watched what Eddie did, and he realized that Eddie was all about work ethic. Eddie was all about merit, not entitlement, and that's exactly opposite of popular culture today. And I think the young men on our campus really respected him for that."
Last Sunday, the Bucs gathered as a team for the first time since Eddie's death. Said Robertson: "Coach Mills told us, 'Eddie's gone, but his presence is always going to be here." To make sure of that, CSU has encased Gadson's corner locker in glass, with his No. 21 game jersey hung up and his equipment laid out as if it were game day. The locker will remain that way until Eddie's class graduates in 2007. Each gold CSU helmet has a black decal with "EG21" in white letters. And a poster with the same decal and the words "Every Man, Every Play, Every Day!" hangs by the locker room door.
"Every day when we go out to practice, we'll think about him," Robertson said.
The Gadson family and