The image is one of the more powerful in recent Boise State football history, showing future Super Bowl champion Shea McClellin walking hand in hand out of the smoke before a game with a 12-year-old fan named Stephen Kinsey.
Kinsey was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma a year prior, and his Make-A-Wish Foundation request was to be part of the Broncos. It was like nothing Boise State had done before, treating Kinsey like a coach, fan and team member leading up to and after that Nov. 6, 2010 game.
Boise State won 42-7 that day, the cherry on top of a weekend that included plenty of gifts, lunch with Boise State’s quarterbacks, hanging out with then-coach Chris Petersen and his family, and the chance to be on the sideline with the coaches during the win over Hawaii.