Justin Skaggs Memorial Criminal Justice Scholarship created

March 5, 2009

Evangel University criminal justice alumni have created the Justin Skaggs Memorial Criminal Justice Scholarship in honor of the 2000 graduate who went on to play for the NFL and Arena Football League and died of a brain tumor at age 28.

Skaggs, a criminal justice major at Evangel, played football for the Crusaders from 1997 to 2000. In his senior year, he caught 22 passes for 295 yards and had four touchdowns. He was in his second season with the Arena Football League’s Utah Blaze when he died. He had also played for the NFL Europe and the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

Football was more than a game for Skaggs. It was a ministry. In 2002 after earning a spot on the Washington Redskins practice squad, he told Today’s Pentecostal Evangel Magazine, “I just want to be a witness and show my teammates I care. Football is a ministry for me. That’s why God has placed me here.”

Skaggs succumbed to brain cancer just two weeks after being diagnosed with Stage Three oligodendroglioma in 2007. He died on June 15 after being taken to the hospital the day before by his wife, Tara, and undergoing emergency brain surgery at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute.

“These are the cards I’ve been dealt,” Skaggs said just days before his death. “I am going to face it head on. I am ready to have a story to inspire someone.”

“Justin was very intense as an athlete and equally intense about his relationship with God,“ says Robert Cirtin, director of Evangel’s criminal justice program. “His life should serve as a role model to all of us.”

Skaggs is survived by his wife, Tara, and two small children, Jake and Abbie.

For additional information, contact Robert Cirtin, 417-865-2815 ext. 8613.

Donate to the scholarship fund

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