As the city of San Diego prepares to celebrate and thank the Aztec men’s basketball team for making it to the national championship game, Mayor Todd Gloria described the players this week as heroes and said they have had a positive impact on the city.
Of course, there have been other athletes who have made a positive difference in San Diego and we lost a great one just a few days ago.
John Brockington, a former NFL star running back with the Green Bay Packers and who lived in San Diego for years, he died last Friday. But Brockington’s contributions and impact on San Diego were far more than what he did as an athlete, but about life and saving lives.
Brockington and his wife, Diane, who he got to know and later married, started the John Brockington Foundation, a non-profit that raised awareness about the critical importance of organ transplants and raised funding to help organ donors and recipients over the years.
Having met John and Diane a few years back, they recounted their inspiring story that has inspired many others.
You see they met by chance, and then in 2001, John’s kidneys were failing and then as luck, or God, would have it, Diane’s kidneys turned out to be a match and she literally saved his life.
John Brockington once told the San Diego Union Tribune, “I believe God had all this planned for me.”
WATCH BELOW: The story of the John Brockington Foundation
(Photo courtesy John Brockington Foundation)