Tulsa to honor deceased assistant coach’s wife with helmet stickers

The University of Tulsa football program will honor the memory of Kayla Saager-Beckley, the wife of assistant coach John Beckley, during this Saturday’s home game against East Texas A&M. The team plans to wear helmet stickers in her honor.

Saager-Beckley, a 30-year-old former standout soccer player for Binghamton University, died suddenly last Wednesday during a workout. Head coach Tre Lamb reported that she was found unresponsive shortly after the medical emergency occurred. At the time of her death, she was pregnant with the couple’s first child, a daughter named Sawyer.

A native of Long Island, Saager-Beckley was a highly decorated athlete at Binghamton, where she served as team captain and was named the 2017 America East Striker of the Year. Binghamton University released a statement expressing profound sadness, describing her as a “dangerous and dynamic forward” and a person with a “big heart.”