ST. LOUIS – Before Jason Seaman was a national hero or a science teacher, he was a football player at Southern Illinois University.
"All the things you want in a student athlete, he pretty much exemplified,” Aystin Flyger, his former defense line coach, said.
Flyger coached Seaman for two seasons, and he remembers Seaman's character.
"He would have given the shirt off his back to any of his teammates,” Flyger said.
He said Seaman led by example as one of the hardest workers on the field and in the classroom.
And Seaman is still leading by example. This time, risking his life to safe his students, shot three times stopping a school shooter in Indiana.
"The act of just selflessness he portrayed today is hard to put into words,” SIU head coach Nick Hill said.
Hill played with Seaman on the team in 2007. He said Seaman was always and will always be a role model.
"Just his core values of hard work and being a good teammate, just as a coach you're looking for more Jason Seamans to join your team for sure,” he said.
A team proud to call him their own.
"What a Saluki is and what a Saluki should be,” Flyger said.
