Luke Laufenberg may be gone, but his football team is ensuring he won’t be forgotten.
Following a two-year battle with leukemia, the 21-year-old UTEP tight end died earlier this month. Monday, the Miners announced that the football team will pay tribute to Laufenberg at Saturday’s season opener against Houston Baptist in the Sun Bowl.
According to the program, the tribute will take place between the first and second quarters as a framed jersey will be presented to the player’s family. Additionally, UTEP players will wear black “Luke” stickers on their helmets throughout the 2019 season.
“Luke Laufenberg touched our hearts and souls forever,” head coach Dana Dimel said in a statement on the day of Laufenberg’s passing. “His spirit and fight are reminders of what it means to play and coach the game of football. He was a fighter, a champion and a wonderful person. He was a very talented young man [who] lived his life and left a huge mark on everyone he came in contact with. He was a wonderful individual and will not be forgotten on our football team. Our student-athletes learned from how he prepared himself and the way he handled adversity. I know Luke loved playing football for UTEP and he will forever be a MINER!”
Laufenberg actually began his collegiate career as a walk-on at Texas A&M. On the day after Christmas 2017, Laufenberg was diagnosed with leukemia; in May of the following year, he was declared cancer-free and, after the 230-pound player had regained the 90-plus pounds he had lost during chemotherapy, began his trek back to college football, first at a junior college in 2018 before signing with UTEP earlier this year.
By the summer, sadly, the disease had returned with a fatal ferocity, with doctors telling his family in July that “his condition was terminal and that he had just a few weeks left.”
