Goodbye to a great

Wallene Leek saved a snapshot of Gabe Rivera with a bushy white beard stuck to his face and a little boy in his lap.

The moment's frozen in time from a Texas Tech coaching staff Christmas party, during which Rivera played Santa Claus for the coaches' kids. Leek was married to then-Red Raiders coach Rex Dockery, and their son, Dee, was the little boy in the picture, cradled by a gentle giant.

"Everybody remembers Gabe because he was an amazing, unbelievable athlete," Leek said Tuesday, "but he had this big ol’ heart, too, and that’s how I remember him. ... I think all the kids must have known it was Gabe, but he was just so sweet with those children."

Sweet's not the word that came to mind for players who went up against Rivera when he played for Texas Tech from 1979-82. Menacing, disruptive and with breathtaking quickness were the adjectives applied. He was 6-foot-3, 300 pounds, with the speed to match the skill-position players he chased down, to the astonishment of fans, analysts and opposing teams. The noseguard known as Señor Sack was an All-American, a first-round draft choice and later a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the Texas Tech Ring of Honor.

"Just the most outstanding athlete that I was ever blessed to coach," former Tech defensive line coach Dean Slayton said, "and I coached a lot of awful good ones. But Gabe was exceptional."

Rivera, whose pro career ended with an October 1983 car wreck that left him paralyzed, died Monday night at a San Antonio hospital. He was 57.

"We lost a Tech icon, a legendary player and person and obviously one of the greatest defensive linemen to ever play at the school," said Rodney Allison, director of the Double T Varsity Club for former Tech letterwinners.

Allison, who was in contact several times Monday and Tuesday with Rivera's wife Nancy, said Rivera was stricken Friday. On Monday, Nancy Rivera told San Antonio television station KENS 5 that Gabe Rivera had a perforated colon and doctors could not do surgery because he lacked stomach muscle. He was preparing for hospice care.

"I think it was really sudden," Allison said. "I don’t think he was in great health. I think he’s always had to deal with stuff, but this particular deal I think was sudden."

Tech was coming off a 7-4 season in 1978 when Rivera arrived the following year from San Antonio Jefferson.

"I can remember Rex coming home from recruiting him," Leek said, "just raving about him as a person, as an athlete. He was just a rarity."

Former Tech quarterback Ron Reeves, one year ahead of Rivera, said, "We started hearing about this big, huge guy coming in. He shows up at camp and  gets going, and just the excitement of having somebody that big, that strong, that fast. ... Even though he was from San Antonio, he just was simple. He didn’t come in with a big ego. He just came in to be one of the boys and did a great job of fitting in."

The Red Raiders managed only a 13-28-3 record over Rivera's four seasons, but he was honorable mention all-America as a sophomore and Southwest Conference defensive player of the year and consensus All-America as a senior. His 321 career tackles included a team-high 105 in 1982 and 14 career sacks. He was named to the SWC all-decade team for the 1980s and inducted into the Tech Hall of Fame in 1993.

Slayton said a pro scout once told him he should have "Gabe's Coach" put on his jacket, because, "'You won't ever have another one like this.'"

The Pittsburgh Steelers, with Pitt quarterback Dan Marino still on the board, took Rivera with the 21st pick in the draft. But in October, seven games into his rookie season, Rivera was legally intoxicated when he suffered head, neck, chest and abdominal injuries in the car wreck that left him a paraplegic. He never walked again.

"He was destined, I believe, to be one of the best defensive linemen that the pro football league had ever really seen," Slayton said. "There are great ones there now and have been in the past, but I think he would have been one of those."

Rivera's name and number 69 were etched onto the wall at Jones AT&T Stadium for his 2014 induction into the program's Ring of Honor. He was the fourth of now five members. That came two years after his College Football Hall of Fame induction.

Those who knew Rivera say he wasn't defined by the circumstances of his accident.

"I thought he was very loyal to Tech," Reeves said. "After he got done with his career and a little adjustment time with his disability, he always made time to come back and be a part of things. I think that's something everybody looked forward to. Every Hall of Honor banquet or whatever, one of the first questions was, 'Is Gabe coming back?' And he did for most of them.

"So I admired the way he hung tough and continued to appear to have a really good attitude about his situation."

Leek, a Nashville, Tennessee, resident, called Rivera's life "a great example for others."

"He had that moment of craziness where he changed his life course," she said. "But where most people would have been so depressed and thrown in the towel, he lived with that and he was such a great example of how to take life’s worst curves and make a great life from it."

Rivera's survivors, in addition to his wife, include son Timothy and daughter Rae. Funeral arrangements were pending Tuesday afternoon.