Logan Tago

PULLMAN – Cougar Rush linebacker Logan Tago made headlines recently for winning a community service award that turned into a national ridicule session by Deadspin and Sports Illustrated. The story behind the story, however, is a heartwarming one that got lost in the shuffle.



Phil Weiler, Vice President for Marketing and Communications at WSU, says it was a smear campaign at Tago’s expense.



“I was disappointed that nobody even bothered to pick up the phone and find out the truth -- people wanted this to be an article they could be snarky about and make fun at this student’s expense,” said Weiler. “He didn’t ask for this award, he didn’t put his name out or advocate for it. Here, he’s made fun of by people that didn’t bother to find out what the truth was. I thought it was a cheap shot.”



Tago was the recipient of the 2017 Fall Community Involvement Award given out by the university's Center for Civic Engagement. As Dale Grummert at the Lewiston Morning Tribune reported back in December, an enduring friendship sprung up between Tago and “Markus Hauck, now 8, who remains close to the Cougar athlete nearly a year later, to the surprise and gratitude of the boy’s single mother. Tago’s support of her son has gone well beyond community service.”



A year ago this past January, Tago accepted a plea deal after being charged with second degree felony robbery and fourth degree misdemeanor assault for an alleged incident that occurred in June 2016. Accounts of the incident varied widely but Tago ultimately accepted a plea bargain for third-degree assault and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 240 hours of community service.



During his community service Tago befriended young Markus, the son of a single mother raising three children including one with special needs, in the town of Albion, one of the poorer communities in eastern Washington. Cosette Hauck said that Tago had been a godsend for her son and not only in talking one-on-one during the community service, but also texts, phone conversations and sometime video-chats.



“He was mandated by the courts to do this but rather than grudgingly put in his community service he actually made an impact on a young boy who was having some issues,” said Weiler. “He clearly went above and beyond the call of duty by not just doing his hours of community service but really interacting with this boy and his family when the mom would reach out, that’s not time you record as a community service hour. That’s someone doing it because he truly has formed a positive relationship with this young boy.”



Speaking to the deservedness of Tago being honored, Weiler says the Community Involvement Award isn’t given out every semester, it’s strictly up to the CEC to either award it or let the term pass without an awardee. The honor goes to an individual who demonstrates a positive experience benefiting the community. WSU football’s Instagram page posted the photo of Tago with the award.









The Instagram post led to the Deadspin and SI articles, and that in turn led to complaints being received by WSU.



“We got some calls from the alumni association saying, ‘What is this?’ The way this was being portrayed in the media was, ‘Look at silly WSU, they gave an award to somebody for what the court required them to do,’” Weiler said.



For Weiler, he just wants the facts in front of the public.



“In Logan’s case, he took a bad situation and a mistake he made and turned it into a positive for himself and also for other people,” said Weiler. “It gets back to that idea of restorative justice ... when people make mistakes we want them to learn from those mistakes. Clearly, Logan learned from his mistake.”



Last December, with classes for the semester finished and long after Tago’s community service was completed, Grummert's article noted that Markus gave Logan a Christmas gift; a leather bracelet with a wooden cross. It signified that he and Tago are best friends. On the same day, Tago took Markus on an extended tour of the normally off-limits Cougar Football Complex.



“Best day ever,” Markus reported back to his mother.



To read the full article in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, click here (subscription required).

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