Stamps have not forgotten Hicks, as trial looms
Sister comforted to hear his teammates invoke his name after Grey Cup win
As his team celebrated its longawaited triumph with one another, Micah Johnson of the Calgary Stampeders couldn’t help but take a moment to remember somebody who couldn’t be with them.
Pulled aside for a post- Grey Cup victory interview Sunday, Johnson told TSN the feeling of beating the Ottawa Redblacks was indescribable.
“We went through so much, man. We sacrificed so much,” he said. “It’s just, it’s unbelievable, dawg.
“And Mylan, we ain’t forgot,” an emotional Johnson continued, shaking his head as he wiped away tears. “We ain’t forgot you, Mylan.”
It’s been two years since Mylan Hicks, a defensive back on the Stampeders’ practice roster, was shot and killed outside a Calgary nightclub in September 2016.
Hicks was at the Marquee Beer Market, along with some of his Stampeders teammates, when an early morning confrontation between two groups boiled over to the parking lot, according to police.
Shots were fired and Hicks, 23, sustained life-threatening injuries. He was rushed to hospital, where he died.
Nelson Tony Lugela, then 19, was charged with second-degree murder.
Hicks’ sister Jazzmine Fowlkes said Monday that although she didn’t see Sunday’s Grey Cup game, it meant a lot to her that the Stampeders haven’t forgotten about her brother.
“After two years, it’s wonderful to hear that my brother’s name is still out there, that he didn’t die in vain, that his name continues to carry a legacy,” Fowlkes said.
“We still struggle to get through the day because it’s such a tragic situation but we try to make the best of our day. There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think about him. I have two sons and they often ask and talk about him, pretty much every day.”
Fowlkes and her family, who live in Detroit, will be travelling to Calgary next week, as Lugela’s trial is set to begin Dec. 3.
The trial had been delayed by a week on the chance the Stampeders made it to their third straight Grey Cup, as the Crown prosecutor told a Court of Queen’s Bench judge last year that many players on the team would likely be witnesses.
“With stuff that’s getting ready to come up with the trial and everything, it’s just bringing back memories and we’re about to relive it all over again,” said Fowlkes.
Hicks’ mother Renee Hill previously told Postmedia that minutes before her son was fatally shot, Hicks had attempted to calm tensions inside the bar.
“He was always so selfless. Apparently, Mylan even bought the person a drink and tried to embrace him when he was all riled up,” she said. “He put his arm around him and tried to talk him down, saying, ‘It’s not bad, it’s all OK.’”
Following the death, Hill accompanied the Stampeders at the 2016 Grey Cup in Toronto, where the team had hoped to win a championship to honour Hicks’ memory.
They fell short against the Redblacks that year (2016), before losing to the Toronto Argonauts in Ottawa in 2017.
Although Hicks’ family doesn’t follow the team as closely anymore, Fowlkes said the Stampeders’ much-anticipated championship brings comfort to them.
“I just wish that my brother could have been a part of it.”
After two years, it’s wonderful to hear that my brother’s name is still out there, that he didn’t die in vain.