Early autopsy reports indicate that there was nothing suspicious about the 25-year-old former ISU running back Stevie Hicks’ death.

Those who were close to Hicks remember him for the constant smile on his face and his happy-go-lucky attitude.

“He was a tremendous young man who always had a smile on his face,” said Barry Silversten, who got to know Hicks through his time at Creighton Prep High School as the school’s football and basketball public address announcer.

Silversten, like many people who knew Hicks, was shocked when he heard the news.

“I lost a son about 11 years ago, and when I got that phone call it brought back memories of when I got the phone call about my son,” Silversten said. “I had myself a good cry. It’s just a shame that we had to lose a kid like Stevie Hicks. He was just a gentle person and an amazing athlete.”

Josh Luedke, Creighton Prep’s varsity basketball coach, also grew close to Hicks when he was in charge of admissions to the private, all-male high school.

“He wasn’t a straight-A student by any means, but he was always willing to work hard,” Luedke said.

Luedke described Hicks as a person who always had a smile on his face.

“He was always in a pleasant mood, a bubbly guy walking down the hall with a smile on his face; he really was friends with everybody,” Luedke said.

Tyler Mullen, a friend of Hicks’ who graduated from Prep with him in 2002, said Hicks’ positive attitude toward everything is what stood out.

“The greatest thing about Steve Hicks is that he was always real happy,” Mullen said. “He was nice to everyone, we had 250 guys in our graduating class and he was friends with just about all of them. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t like Stevie Hicks.”

Mullen was “absolutely stunned” and said he was in denial for a couple hours saying that it didn’t make sense.

After high school, Hicks remained positive and upbeat as a Cyclone.

“We all remember Stevie as a guy who was always in a good mood,” former ISU quarterback Bret Meyer said in an interview with the Omaha World Herald. “You could always count on him to keep the mood light; he was a part of our football family, I just can’t believe it.”

After Hick’s career at Iowa State, he ran into some problems he served five days in jail for disturbing the peace, in which he pleaded guilty to a spew of charges that included disorderly conduct and damaging property.