SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 16, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Zebulon Beck set a goal several months ago to lead Weber State onto the field for its in-state matchup with Utah on Saturday.
Beck had been serving as chaplain for the Weber State football team for about seven years, so joining the Wildcats when taking the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium seemed to be an achievable goal.
But Beck wanted to walk onto the field, and walking is something he hadn’t been able to do since October 2022.
While driving himself to the hospital with COVID on Oct. 30, 2022, Beck blacked out and crashed into a cement barrier. He woke up at University of Utah Hospital, where doctors determined he had suffered a stroke and broken his hip.
“They had to do surgery on my hips,” Beck said during an interview at the Craig H. Neilsen Rehabilitation Hospital, where he’s been working with physical therapists to relearn everyday movements, including how to walk.
Fairly early in his recovery, Beck said he was chatting with then-Weber State head coach Jay Hill, who’s now the defensive coordinator at BYU. That’s when he shared with Hill his goal to be able to walk again in time to lead the Wildcats onto the field against the Utes.
“So I told Jay, the coach, ‘When we come here to play Utah, I’m going to lead the team on the field.’ And he’s like, ‘All right, man. Let’s do it. That’s the goal,'” he said.
“When I told my [physical] therapist, I think they thought, ‘That’s not going to happen. You can’t even sit up.’ But every day I got up and I thought, ‘I’m going to do this. I’m going to lead the team onto the field, no matter how hard it is or how much work I have to do.'”
Beck said he worked daily to improve his strength and last week was able to walk the full length of a football field with assistance from physical therapists.
Most of the team was unaware he had relearned to walk when he greeted players and coaches while standing in the Weber State locker room prior to Saturday’s game.
Beck was in a wheelchair as he led the Wildcats onto the field, but with assistance from physical therapist Jonathan Kinzinger, he was able to stand up, walk and join the team on the sidelines.
“He told me … his primary goal was to be able to walk on to the field again with the Weber State football team, and that just really meant a lot to me,” Kinzinger said. “So I thought it would be really phenomenal to start working with him and try to achieve that goal. And here we are.”
