Nearly a year ago, Zebulon Beck set a goal for himself to lead his beloved Weber State University Wildcats onto the football field against the University of Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 16.
The Latter-day Saint has served as Weber State’s football team chaplain for several years, but this pregame moment carried deeper personal significance.
Last October, Beck was involved in a serious automobile accident and hasn’t been able to walk until recent weeks.
“I spent the last year up at the University of Utah rehab center getting better, and you got to set goals,” he said. “My goal was to say a prayer and lead the team out onto the field.”
Who is Zeb Beck?
Beck retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in 2020 following a 25-year career as a chaplain. He finished his career as the wing chaplain at Hill Air Force Base and currently resides with his family in Saratoga Springs, Utah.
Highlights from his 25-year career include being the chaplain of the Air Force Academy football team and a deployed ministry in Iraq, as well as opportunities to travel the world and come home with “experiences I will never forget,” he said in a 2020 Deseret News article.
“I have seen a lot of death and trauma because I was in Iraq and around Afghanistan. I have seen all that up close and personal, but I have never been on the other end of it until now,” he said.
As a young man, Beck served a full-time mission in Peru and Venezuela for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The accident, life support and a goal
Beck said he was driving himself to the hospital with COVID-19 on Oct. 31, 2022, when he blacked out and crashed into a cement barrier.
He awoke at the University of Utah Hospital, where doctors informed Beck he had suffered a stroke and a broken hip. The left side of his body was paralyzed.
For a period of time he survived on life support. At one point, Beck said he was unresponsive, and the doctor spoke with his wife about letting him go.
Beck said the turning point came when he felt a spiritual impression that the choice to live or die was his to make.
“If you want to fight, then fight, and that means start breathing on your own. If you want to rest, that is OK, you can go to sleep,” Beck said.
He thought about his family and decided he wanted to live. “Pretty miraculously, I started breathing on my own,” he said.
After things took a positive turn, Beck started rehabilitation. His therapist encouraged him to set a long-range goal as he learned to walk again.
“‘OK, I will lead Weber State onto the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium,’” he said. “So for the last eight or nine months, I have been diligently working on being ready to do that.”
Achieving the goal
Beck said he has been walking for a couple of weeks now, practicing for the big day. Last week, he was able to walk the length of a football field with assistance from physical therapists.
Most of the Weber State players were not aware of his progress as he greeted them Saturday.
The chaplain took a David vs. Goliath approach in his remarks to the team before they played No. 12-ranked Utah. He explained that early on in his recovery, some doctors and therapist told him he would likely never walk again.
“Then I stood up from my wheelchair and walked a little ways and said, ‘See, I can walk,’” Beck said. “‘And if I can walk, you guys can beat Utah.’”
The human object lesson had the desired effect. Players showed excitement and exchanged high-fives. Many approached Beck for a hug or hand shake.
Senior Noah Atagi, a 6-foot-6, 325-pound offensive lineman and returned missionary of the Chile Antofagasta Mission, is one of Weber State’s team captains. He has appreciated seeing Beck’s upbeat, happy smile and hearing his inspirational messages each week during his years as a Wildcat. He said the team has missed having the cheerful chaplain around during his months of recovery.
“It was nice to see him get that energy back,” Atagi said of Beck’s pregame appearance Saturday. “The team was very respectful and supportive of him because that is a life-altering accident he had. And to be able to see all that love that he has for Weber State, to see him stand up, and tell us that he was told that he was never gonna walk again, that was something special. You don’t see that every day.”
Beck was in a wheelchair as he led the Wildcats onto the field, but with assistance from a physical therapist, he was able to stand up, walk and be with the team on the sidelines.
Despite his prayers and inspiring actions, Weber State fell short in the contest, 31-7.
Lessons learned
With hard work and the support of good people, goals can be accomplished, Beck said.
“Day by day you can get stronger,” he said. “I think God made us that way to understand our humility, our weakness, but also our strength. And perseverance and resiliency really matter. ... You work hard and then the blessings come.”
The overall experience has been very humbling for Beck, who has new appreciation and gratitude for the little things in life, such as spending time with loved ones or walking into his kitchen to get a glass of water.
“Everything comes down to your faith,” he said. “It makes you realize that your house, your car, your boat, those things really have very little meaning in the big picture of life. Everything you think you have and all the things you think you can do, you can’t do without the breath of life. If you are putting your trust in material things you are going to be greatly disappointed.”
One doctor who Beck spoke with likened Beck’s experience to Joseph Smith being locked up in Liberty Jail.
“It is like you are helpless and imprisoned because you are paralyzed. You can’t move, can’t get out or go where you want to go. Sometimes you get to a point where you think, ‘Has God forsaken me?’” he said. “There were definitely some times during this trial for me when I wondered if God remembered me or was going to help me or not. Every time I prayed and wondered about that, the Lord would send me somebody to visit me, lift me up and give me hope.”
Beck said he will be a better chaplain now because he has more empathy, especially for people who are disabled. “You don’t realize how difficult it is to be in a wheelchair,” he said.
