Sheri Flick, 57, spent seven years on the waitlist for Indiana men’s basketball season tickets.
She finally got an email this July saying she had been chosen. The tickets were going to be a 25th wedding anniversary present for her husband, Scott, who was working in Texas at the time, so she gave him a phone call when she got the news.
“Before I could finish getting the words out of my mouth he said ‘I’m buying it, I’m buying it, I’m buying it,’” Sheri said.
Scott got sick on Aug. 5 and a positive COVID-19 test followed on Aug. 15, Sheri said. On Aug. 21, Scott was taken to the hospital and put on a ventilator. His lung collapsed Sept. 6, the day his family was set to fly in to see him.
They were able to say their goodbyes before he died Sept. 7.
Sheri said he never found out exactly where the seats were because he was on a ventilator by the time they found out.
Scott loved camping, fishing, Indiana basketball and being with his family, Sheri said. He did everything for his family, and they plan on attending games this season in his honor.
Sheri grew up a Purdue fan but became an Indiana fan when she met Scott. Their daughter Bethany, 24, graduated from IU during the pandemic in 2020.
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Bethany remembers going to Hoosier Hysteria with her dad and sisters in late elementary school. Their seats were as far in the nosebleeds as they could be, but she said Scott just loved the experience.
“Just being in the element, right there you could tell how happy he was,” Bethany said.
She isn’t a huge sports fan, but she loved Indiana and would sometimes watch games with her dad because he loved it so much.
Scott, a diehard Indiana fan, planned on flying in every chance he got a break from work to come to the games this season. Someone else would take them when he couldn’t. He wanted the best seats possible, so the Flicks bought one $900 season ticket.
Scott used to watch games with his dad, Sheri said, and it had been his dream forever to get season tickets for Indiana men’s basketball.
“He was just beyond thrilled just to know that he was actually going to get the tickets,” Sheri said.
Bethany said she thinks being at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall will remind her of Scott because of the memories they had there and how much he loved Indiana basketball. His daughter, Lexie, said she doesn’t know how she’ll feel but that walking into Assembly Hall sounded overwhelming.
Sheri doesn’t think she’ll feel Scott’s presence but rather the excitement he would’ve had being there. She said the family’s plan is to have someone attend every game.
“It’s for him,” Sheri said. “(We) just want to be able to do it in his name. For me it’s just going to be super difficult to walk in there and be able to hold the emotion because he would have been so happy.”
Sheri said Scott was skeptical about the vaccine and hadn’t gotten it yet, but Sheri said he planned on getting it before he got sick. After 30 years of work in the pharmaceutical industry, Scott didn’t believe a vaccine made as quickly as the COVID-19 vaccine could be safe, she said.
His oldest son Adam, Lexie’s twin Delaney and three of Scott’s best friends weren’t going to get the vaccine but changed their minds because of Scott’s death, Sheri said.
“The thing that all of us have always stressed is if his story can bring one person to change their mind — to help anybody, to save anybody — then it was worth it,” Sheri said.
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He was buried in an Indiana three-quarter zip sweater with an Indiana Nerf football and Nerf basketball. The flowers at his funeral were red and white, and all his pallbearers wore an Indiana shirt besides Adam, who wore an Indiana tie.
Scott passed just before realizing his dream of having Indiana men’s basketball season tickets, but the IU-loving, family man’s legacy will live on through his family as they attend the games in his place this season.
“I’ll be able to feel him there,” Bethany said. “That’s probably one of the places he loved the most.”
