At his funeral today, friends and family remembered freshman Elija Swager as the kind of guy who never met a stranger.
A guy who greeted everyone he saw, calling them ma’am or sir, with a smile on his face.
A guy who wanted to work with children and lived by his mother’s mantra, “I don’t care what you do, just do something in life and be happy.”
He was the kind of guy who would do anything to make anyone laugh.
“He’s an angel, he always was,” said Brooke Ice, who went to Angola High School with Swager.
Swager was found dead Saturday at an off-campus apartment. The cause of death has not been announced.
Everyone’s big brother
Five days later, a line of people the length of the Fairview Missionary Church came to honor Swager in Angola, Ind.
Ice was wearing a T-shirt she had made for Swager while he was still a center on the football team. The T-shirt says, “You mess with me, you mess with him.”
She made it because once, during a game, Swager stepped aside and let his quarterback, Brady Boots, be tackled. Boots and Ice were dating and had just had a fight.
Swager pointed to Ice in the stand and smiled. He had done that just for her because if you messed with her, you messed with him.
“He was kind of like my big brother,” she said. “He was always looking after me.”
Dreaming big
Boots forgave Swager, since they were best friends as well. The two had “a whole different language with each other” on the field, a relationship that benefited the team. By the end, Boots said they didn’t have to talk, they just knew where the other would be.
The two promised each other they would play at Lucas Oil Stadium and win state their senior year. It never happened, but that didn’t matter much to them.
“We always had big dreams,” Boots said. “… We definitely lived every moment to the fullest during football season.”
Part of Swager’s dreams included studying sports administration at Ball State in the hopes of coaching and working with kids.
His aunt, Chandler, said Swager spent his last weekend at her house, staying up late to talk and eat pizza, reconciling his decision between business or coaching.
“I told him, ‘Elija, if you’re this passionate about what you do, you can make a lot of money,‘” she said.
It was his first time staying with her since leaving for college.
Swager worked for his aunt at the Bull Pen Café in Fremont, Ind., since he was 14, and she said he knew how to charm the customers.
“He was a smart ass,” she said. “He was full of it, same as he was when he grew up.”
At work, he would do something to irritate his uncle, who was cooking. When he turned around, he would have a “sneaky little grin” for his aunt, letting her in on the joke.
“That’s what I miss the worst,” she said.
Community in mourning
Jake Johnson, one of Swager’s best friends, said he missed Swager telling him he was proud of him.
Johnson graduated from the Marine Corps boot camp Friday and learned the next day that Swager had died. He decided to spend the week at home in Angola before he goes to Camp Pendleton, Calif.
“If I had gotten to see him, he probably would have given me a big hug,” Johnson said. “… He would probably would have taken me out to dinner. He was just that type of guy. He would have done anything for me I asked him to do.”
He said Swager was always there to help a friend achieve something, even helping his classmates with their homework.
“There were a lot of kids who wouldn’t have passed class without Elija,” he said.
Swager was going to help his friend Beau Herndon, a junior at Angola High School, get into Ball State. He told Herndon how much he liked the campus.
“He was always a phone call away,” Herndon said.
He said Swager was the best kid he’s known in a long time.
“Everybody comes together and supports everyone as one,” Reese Oberlin, Swager’s rugby teammate, said.
Oberlin, who has known Swager since middle school, had former players sign a rugby ball in his memory.
The ball filled up with signatures and the church filled up with people, all to remember and honor Swager for being exactly the kind of guy he was – their friend.
Chris Stephens contributed to this story
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