UCLA to honor fallen receiver at Rose Bowl game Saturday

The UCLA team and staff observe a moment of silence in memory of teammate Nick Pasquale at a football game against Nebraska last week.

By Chris Foster and Hailey Bronson-Potts

Sept. 20, 2013 2:41 PM PT

Nick Pasquale -- the UCLA receiver who was struck and killed by a car earlier this month -- will be honored at a football game at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.

There will be 20,000 Pasquale towels handed out Saturday when the Bruins play New Mexico State, and T-shirts will be for sale.

The shirts were donated by Adidas and the printing was arranged for free. All proceeds will go to the Nick Pasquale Foundation.

The 20-year-old’s No. 36 jersey will also be on the Rose Bowl turf the remainder of the season.

It’s the latest in a series of memorials for the receiver, who was remembered by an overflow crowd at San Clemente Presbyterian Church this past weekend as a “tough, compassionate young man.”

At the UCLA-Nebraska away game last Saturday, both teams observed a moment of silence, in addition to paying tribute on the field.

Pasquale died of multiple blunt-force injuries after he was struck by a vehicle in San Clemente on Sept. 8, according to a coroner’s report. He had played in his first game for UCLA’s football team the week before and was in his hometown over the weekend when UCLA did not have a game scheduled.

Authorities said Pasquale was walking when two cars approached him. One car avoided him, but the other could not, authorities said. The driver called in the accident and waited at the scene, said Lt. Gary Strachan, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. No one was arrested.

His death hit the team hard. At an impromptu memorial soon after the accident, one teammate called it “absolutely brutal.” And when the UCLA football team returned to practice the following Monday, the Bruin football flag was flying at half-staff.

At the Rose Bowl on Saturday, UCLA will present a framed jersey to Pasquale’s parents and brother during the first quarter.

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