Nicolas Gonzales won’t be blocking and tackling Saturday when Illinois State’s football team meets Western Illinois at Hancock Stadium. Battling Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Gonzales relies on a wheelchair for mobility.
For the fifth straight year, Gonzales will attend a Redbird home game as part of the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy's Coach to Cure MD program. One weekend each season, coaches at participating schools wear a Coach to Cure MD arm band to help raise awareness and funds for research for a disease with no cure.
Head coach Brock Spack will tell you the Redbirds consider Gonzales one of their own.