Western Carolina offensive line coach John Peacock died Wednesday due to complications from COVID-19, his fiancée said. He was just 32.
The school confirmed Peacock’s death with a message posted on social media Friday, saying Peacock was a “selfless hard worker who was always upbeat and humming a tune.”
Peacock joined the Western Carolina staff this spring. He’d previously worked at Tusculum University and Valdosta State.
While the school did not release an official cause of death, his fiancée, Erika Alexander, said on Facebook that Peacock had tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 14, with doctors expressing concern about low oxygen levels the following day.
“Those of you who knew him knew he was stubborn as hell and hated the doctor,” Alexander wrote, “so he didn’t want to go to the hospital.”
Alexander wrote that she had been in Florida visiting family at the time of Peacock’s death.
Western Carolina said it would hold a moment of silence and lower the WCU flag to honor Peacock during its first game against Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 4.
Alexander and Peacock were scheduled to get married in February 2022, according to the school’s biography of the coach.