Four busloads of University of Connecticut football players dressed in dark suits and each carrying a single white rose tied with a blue ribbon walked into the New Birth Baptist Church in Miami Monday morning to pay their final respects to slain student-athlete Jasper Tyrone Howard.
Howard’s popularity was evident inside the packed church, where the 20-year-old former football player lay in repose in a gray casket, wearing the same gray and blue gloves he wore on the field. The inside of the casket was decorated with photos of him in his UConn football uniform and the words “Jasper ‘Jazz’ Howard – Super Star.”
The starting cornerback died Oct. 18 after being stabbed outside the Student Union during a University-sanctioned dance.
For many of his teammates it was important to see Howard at peace.
“It was tough,” said friend and teammate Kashif Moore about the viewing. “But I had to see him one last time.”
The 105 members of the team plus coaches had gathered at 5 a.m. at the Burton Family Football Complex to take a chartered jet to Miami International Airport. UConn administrators Jeffrey Hathaway, director of athletics, John Saddlemire, vice president for student affairs, and Board of Trustees chairman Lawrence McHugh also attended the funeral.
Their presence was a show of support for Howard’s family, and the team was warmly welcomed by others in attendance. But it was also an effort by team members to put some closure to an episode deeply affecting them.
Players and coaches alike said Howard’s positive outlook and determination were crucial to the team’s morale. He had become a team leader.
“For his brothers to get one more chance to see him was really important,” Edsall said outside the church. “I had already seen him twice. [Edsall identified the body at the hospital, and again at the medical examiner’s office.] But for me, coming here today just gave me a sense of closure.”
The Connecticut contingent, all wearing blue and white lapel ribbons with the number six on them, took up 18 benches in an auditorium filled to capacity with nearly 2,000 people. Wreaths and bouquets, including a floral arrangement depicting Howard’s number six, lined the walls. Two different choirs sang with piano and drum accompaniment. Friends, former teammates, and coaches stretching from his days playing Pee-Wee football to his days as a star at Miami Edison Senior High School, where he was all county in track and football, vividly recalled Howard’s focus and determination.
City, county, and state elected officials or their representatives all read official proclamations honoring a young man widely seen as an inspiration to others. Tra’von Benjamin, who said he was mentored by Howard, vowed to change his life and go to college to make Howard proud. Pastor Otis Kemp decried the violence taking too many young black men, and admonished Howard’s friends not to seek vengeance – saying that was the Lord’s domain.
By size, the 5-foot 9-inch, 175-pound Howard was an improbable football star. But not by spirit, according to those who knew him. Howard simply didn’t like being told what he could not do, according to Scott Lakatos, a position coach with the Huskies. “All those negatives? He’d look those things in the eye and ignore them,” Lakatos said during the service.
Or, as Kijuan Dabney, one of Howard’s first roommates, said during the service, “We wondered how you got here, but as soon as you got here, we realized.”
Dabney was reading from a poem he and the team wrote titled “UConn’s Angel.” “Little man with a big heart, you struck fear in your opponents’ heart, … smallest soldier in the army, but the leader of the troops.”
The night of his stabbing, Howard was celebrating the team’s 38-25 victory over Louisville, a victory in which he played a large role, with a career-high 11 tackles and a forced fumble he recovered.
Compounding the tragedy was the news that Howard and his longtime girlfriend Daneisha Freeman, were expecting a child. Although Howard’s death has robbed the baby of a father, numerous Huskies, from coach Edsall to players Moore and Dabney, vowed there would be 105 uncles (the size of the team) looking out for the child.
Coach Edsall said he felt fortunate to be able to coach someone like Howard, someone whose hard work and commitment inspired both his coaches and the rest of the team.
“The growth and the development of Jazz were special. I’ve been coaching for 30 years and all the young men that I’ve coached are special, but this guy was right there at the top,” Edsall said. “He was doing all that he could do to be the best student, best person, best athlete that he could be.
“Jazz, you will be with us forever,” Edsall added. “We will carry your legacy on.”
