JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Angi Richardson hadn’t seen the picture until Tuesday.
In the midst of grieving the unexpected loss of her son, Chris Richardson, it was a brief moment to smile. The picture of him lifting up his nephew to hang on a basketball rim embodied his personality.
“I think that picture represents who he was in life, to always lift up someone else,” she said. “If someone was down, he was there to lift them up.”
Chris Richardson, who starred in basketball at Creekside High School and also coached in the area, was killed last Friday in Lansing, Michigan in an accident involving a train. Funeral arrangements are pending. He was 23 years old and just one semester short of graduating from the University of Florida with a master’s degree in sports management.
Angi Richardson said that the grieving process has been substantial but softened by the outpouring of support. There have been pictures and stories and hugs followed by more pictures and stories and hugs.
There was even a Facebook post that a family friend unearthed from 2019 sharing Chris Richardson’s love for Taco Bell.
So, they did what he would have done and went out to Taco Bell.
Angi Richardson said that she and her family have been overwhelmed by the response to her son’s death, and it’s allowed her to see just how much of a mark he left.
“I always knew that he made an impact on everyone that he knew,” she said. “I just didn’t realize how many people would come forth and share his story, their story together. It’s been a lot to digest how inspiring he was to so many people.”
Chris Richardson was an impact player at guard for the Creekside basketball team, playing three seasons on varsity for the Knights before graduating in 2016. His best season came as a senior when he led Creekside to the regional finals for just the second time in program history. Creekside lost at the wire, 57-54 to Tallahassee Lincoln.
Chris Richardson averaged 12.9 points per game and was voted the St. Johns County Player of the Year by the St. Augustine Record and was a third-team All-First Coast selection.
Two years later, the Knights reached the Class 8A state championship game. Will Mayer, Chris Richardson’s Creekside coach at the time, said he laid the foundation for that group to finally be able to get there. Nicknamed C-Breezy because of the splash of air he left when running by opponents, Chris Richardson let his play do most of his talking.
He averaged 5.2 points per game in a season at Southern Virginia before returning to the area.
“Really humble kid, very quiet, but very intense and just really worked his tail off and loved the game,” Mayer said. “Chris was definitely the leader by example. When he did say something, everybody listened because he was kind of a soft-spoken guy. Just led with his intensity and example in practice and in games.”
Chris Richardson’s grandfather, Jim Wheelwright, came from a basketball background and was there to answer questions when his grandson began dabbling in the sport in eighth grade. By the time Chris Richardson got to high school and was playing for Mayer, Wheelwright was announcing basketball games for Creekside.
“What a wonderful thing for an old man that loves basketball to be calling his grandson’s games and watching him play great and win games, what a beautiful thing,” he said. “That was like probably my best time in my whole life.