You’ll find on the main page of DesignatedWriters.com a story about LSU and Ouachita High favorite Don Redden and his tragic passing at 24 from an undetected heart condition 30 years ago this month.

We’ve heard from lots of people about their memories of Redden, a kind and sweet soul with talent and size and basketball grace. Stories of guys who were on recruiting trips with him, shot driveway basketball with him, watched and rooted for him while he led LSU to the Final Four in 1986.

My favorite was from an old friend about this one thing I had forgotten. Jamie Kimbrough was LSU’s sports information director then; he moved east I think the next year and lives in Georgia now. He’s another one of those kind and sweet souls who was in a business that will make you pull your hair out sometimes, even if you don’t have any. But Jamie was always level, always helpful, and always encouraging.

Jamie wrote me a note and reminded me of this:

“If my memory serves me correctly, to honor their beloved teammate, the players decided to have the T-shirt Don had on when he passed away cut into pieces, and a strip was sewn into the shoulder area of each player’s game jersey. Rather than the traditional black band to honor his passing, the LSU Tigers each wore a piece of his T-shirt near their hearts — symbolic of a treasured teammate and his zest for life!

“Don Redden was a prince of a guy,” he wrote, “with the heart of a lion.”

There are tributes, and then there is … that. Every tribute you’ve ever heard or will hear of comes from the same place—the heart. And every tribute is for the same reason—to honor a fallen friend. Whoever thought up that one for Don should have his brain bronzed. If you get to read the story, you’ll see that the Tigers did something else special too, while wearing pieces of their guy’s shirt.

Sometimes a T-shirt is a whole lot more than just a T-shirt.

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