"Things will be a little different right before we go out on the court not being able to shake the hand of George Hickman," UW basketball coach Lorenzo Romar tweeted Monday.

Romar recalled Hickman games, doling out handshakes and encouraging words even when the team wasn't doing well.

"He is a guy that if everyone came forward and said how he touched their lives we would probably fill up that arena," Romar said, adding: "He helped make history. He helped put African-Americans on the map in the military."

Hickman worked a number of posts, including usher and press box attendant, at Huskies games for several decades. He also serves as a press box greeter at Seahawks games. He raised the 12th Man flag before the Seahawks game against the Baltimore Ravens last November.

"He was just a wonderful man," Doris Hickman said Monday of her husband.

The grandson of slaves, Hickman nurtured an interest in aviation as a curious boy gazing up at the sky above St. Louis.