On Wednesday evening, hundreds came out to a memorial put on by the Youngstown State Athletic Department for 24-year-old Darius Shackleford who was killed in a car crash Saturday. 

"As a coach, if you had a whole team full of Darius Shackleford's you'd feel pretty good," said Bo Pelini, former YSU football coach.

"The day he stepped on the Earth he was a bright light and he shined as bright as he possibly could," said Shereif Bynum, Darius' roommate and former teammate. "You never think it's going to happen to you and then it happens to you. You don't know what's real."

"He's just the ultimate team player," Belini said. "You can see the kind of reception out here tonight and what everyone thought of him. He was just a great kid to be around."

Friends and family remembering Darius' for his humble and loving personality.

"The most important legacy he'll leave is to just treat people the right way because that was him," said Derick Vickroy, Darius' uncle. "He would make everybody feel good. Whoever he was around."

"He made you feel like your problems were his problems," Bynum said, "and he helped you work through whatever you were going through."

Family telling 21 News he loved his team, alma mater and the game of football.

"He had a lot of options and he weighed those options very carefully so he knew this [YSU] was the place for him to be," Vickroy said. 

"You try to make sense of why you lose somebody like him at such a young age but you have faith that he's in a better place right now," Belini said. 

Darius' graduated from Youngstown State in December of 2020. Funeral services have yet to be announced.