Steve Gann, quarterback of Muskogee High School’s last state championship football team, has passed away at the age of 51.
Gann, who, along with running back Glenn Bell, led the team to the 1986 state championship victory, later had two daughters, Carlee Gann and Paige DeMasters, with his then-wife Nikki Gann.
Gann spent his entire life in Muskogee, recently struggling with diabetes and liver failure, which took his life.
Funeral arrangements are pending with Cornerstone Funeral Home.
Close friend Heila Schulz Newman, who says she and Gann were lifelong best friends, said arrangements are being made today.
“The world suffers today,” she said. “He was the walking epitome of Jesus’ love. The kindest heart. If you knew him you loved him; he had the most infections laugh and never saw the bad in anyone.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Steve was a friend of mine, and one of the nicest people I ever had the pleasure to know. When I was a nerd at Muskogee High School, he had no incentive to reach out and be my friend. He was a popular guy, quarterback of the football team, and I was just some dork. But he reached out, and we were friends from then until he died. Muskogee is a worse place without him.
