Former T-Bird Nagata mourned: ‘He brought everybody around him up’
Cole Meyer says Kory Nagata loved to laugh and people around him loved him to be laughing.
“When he was smiling and laughing, the whole room was smiling and laughing, too,” Meyer said of Nagata, his former teammate with the football UBC Thunderbirds. “He was that guy. He brought everybody around him up.
“He was that guy. He was so selfless. It was never about him. It was about everyone else in the room with him, and everyone saw that in him and always wanted him to be around.”
Nagata died on Sunday. Hanging with friends on a boat docked at a pier near the Pacific Gateway Hotel in Richmond, he jumped into the Fraser River to retrieve a football that had gone into the water, and he wasn’t able to get back on land. Police found his body Monday. Nagata was 24.
He and Meyer had been joined at the hip for three seasons with the Thunderbirds, the second-string running back and quarterback to Ben Cummings and Michael O’Connor, respectively, from much of those 2016-18 campaigns.
They made a pact that they were going to keep each other ready, in case one of them got a chance for major playing time. They became friends fast.
Nagata, who played his highschool football at Richmond’s Hugh Boyd, did get his opportunities to shine.
Meyer says the quintessential Nagata on-field moment came in the 2016 Hardy Cup Canada West final against the Calgary Dinos, when Cummings’ helmet popped off on a play near the Calgary goalline in the third quarter and he had to come out of the game, according to the rules. Nagata, who was “icecold,” according to Meyer, entered the game, bounced off a couple of Calgary tacklers and went into the end zone for a one-yard touchdown.
“Most people don’t understand how hard that is to do. I’ll never forget that and the hope it gave our team. That was Kory,” Meyer explained.
Nagata’s lone carry of the contest made the score 36-19 in Calgary’s favour. The T-Birds would go on to lose 46-43.
There was also the time when Cummings was hurt in UBC’s 2018 season opener against the Manitoba Bisons and Nagata went for 136 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown along the ground and 93 yards on five receptions with a touchdown via O’Connor offerings in a 30-20 win.
Nagata, who was listed at 5-9 and 185 pounds, played one more game that season and then broke his foot. It never healed properly, and he retired from football.
Meyer said that only increased Nagata’s intensity in academics and he had piled up courses over the past two years with the aim of graduating from UBC’s Sauder School of Business this year.
According to his LinkedIn page, Nagata had a 3.70 grade point average. He was a U Sport Academic All-Canadian in his final season with the T-Birds.
“I’m not sure what career path he was taking, but I’m sure he would have been amazing,” Meyer, 25, who is a graduate assistant coach with the T-Birds, said on Tuesday afternoon.
“He connected with so many people. I think I was on the phone for four or five hours straight yesterday, talking to 40 or 50 different people about him. We all just cried for hours.
“I love him with my whole heart and I’ll miss him every day.”
UBC coach Blake Nill said he’s told his players that it’s important the T-Birds try to find ways to support Nagata’s family. He said it’s also important they support one another, because so many of them had connections with Nagata.
“He was a difference-maker on the field, he was a difference-maker in the classroom,” Nill said. “He was the real deal.
“He’s the kind of guy that the alumni development people here love, because he was a high-end athlete who was going to have great success in whatever career path he chose.”
O’Connor, who was a backup last season with the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts, explained via email that Nagata’s “smile and ability to bring joy to his teammates” is what he’ll remember.
“Kory was a selfless teammate who always put the team first,” O’Connor said.
Bill Haddow, who coached Nagata at Hugh Boyd, remembered him for “being a great teammate who made sure that everyone knew they were important” and for “being so respectful with players and coaches.”
“He always looked you in the eye, always shook your hand in the way that you knew that he really meant it,” Haddow said.
“It’s a tragic loss.” Nagata played two seasons with the Okanagan Sun of the Canadian Junior Football League between his time with Hugh Boyd and UBC.