By Paul A. Miller, MA ’21
UAlbany’s Pep Band is rehearsing the opening bars of the 1997 Backstreet Boys hit, “Everybody,” and the repetitive earworm reaches around the corner of Bob & Mary Casey Stadium to where Jaclyn Gleason ’10 sits, under a slender pear tree. The young, 13-foot-tall sapling provides no actual shade or physical relief from the muggy, mid-August afternoon, but the tree is still a great comfort to her; it was planted last spring, in tribute to her late husband, Liam Gleason ’07, whose stature, steadfastness and irrepressible spirit earned him the nickname “The Tree” — a moniker given to him by UAlbany’s men’s lacrosse head coach, Scott Marr.
Gleason was a former UAlbany lacrosse defenseman on the school’s legendary 2007 squad, the University’s first lacrosse team to host and win an NCAA playoff game, and the first to advance to the quarterfinals. He later served the team as an assistant coach and held successful head coaching positions at Saint Rose and Siena colleges. Gleason, whose heartbreaking death at 41 followed a fall in December 2025, is remembered for the indelible mark he left as a player, coach, role model and father of three. In October 2026, UAlbany Athletics inducted Gleason into its Hall of Fame, alongside the entire 2007 team. It’s an especially meaningful honor to Gleason’s wife, a former Great Danes soccer standout and captain.
“He would be honored that he’s going in [as an individual], but, at the same time, he would say it’s just the 2007 [team] that he really cares about,” she says, recalling how the team rallied to support her family after his death. “Grief is quite a journey, but the 2007 class has stepped up like you would never believe.” That 2007 team includes Merrick Thomson ’07, Gleason’s former teammate, coaching colleague, best friend and godfather to the Gleasons’ youngest child.
“We will do anything for [Jaclyn and the kids] to make sure that they just have a great life,” Thomson said. “We’re not going to fill the void, but we’re going to ... always show up and be there for them.”
Thomson, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2024, and now entering his 11th season on the coaching staff, knows what it means to be extraordinary on and off the field — something he saw daily in his friend of two decades. That spirit is now embodied in The Liam Gleason Humanitarian Award, bestowed by each of the 77 NCAA Division I teams, to an exceptional player demonstrating leadership qualities, sportsmanship and community service.
“It represents the best in the game of lacrosse,” says Thomson of the award. “And Liam represented that. He was a great person.”
Athletic achievements and coaching success aside, there was simply nothing more important to Gleason than family. He relished his role as a father of three — Kennedy, Penn and Tate — never missing a pediatrician visit or a chance to play with them in the backyard, remembers Jaclyn Gleason, tearing up at the memories. She says her husband learned the best lesson on parenting from the father of renowned UAlbany lacrosse players Miles and Lyle Thompson, brothers and the first Native Americans to win the prestigious Tewaaraton Award as the top college lacrosse players in the United States in 2014. The elder Thompson shared that spending time with your children was the way to make them good humans. “So, with Liam, that was how we raised our kids,” she beams.
Gleason is often described as “larger than life,” and his gregarious and welcoming personality drew all types of people to him, even despite his highly favored and often-worn blue waffle-patterned shirt that he joked brought out his eyes. He simply loved life and understood its value.
Four months before his death, Gleason returned home from renewing his driver’s license, only to discover that it didn’t display the emblem indicating that he’d elected to be an organ donor. Distressed and with family dinner plans on the line, Gleason insisted on solving the problem. “‘I have to go right now,’” Jaclyn recalls him saying. “He took it very seriously.” It turned out that his donor designation was, indeed, active, and just months later, after his death, his gift saved four lives. Seeing her husband’s impact, Jaclyn Gleason registered as an organ donor herself.
Toward the end of this interview, she points to a paved pedestrian path, remembering how her mischievous husband, defying wisdom (and bystanders’ protests), would drive his brown Hyundai Santa Fe down it for closer field access. “People were like, ‘You can't do that!’ and he was like, ‘Yes, I can,’” she laughs. “So, it just makes sense that the tree is right here — in his lane!”
The sounds of the pep band have subsided; the heat and humidity have not. Jaclyn Gleason is headed home to their children, but she’ll be back many times. There’s the Hall of Fame induction, class reunions, and lacrosse camps for the kids — and there’s The Tree, standing tall over the lacrosse field and growing stronger each day.
By Paul A. Miller, MA ’21
UAlbany’s Pep Band is rehearsing the opening bars of the 1997 Backstreet Boys hit, “Everybody,” and the repetitive earworm reaches around the corner of Bob & Mary Casey Stadium to where Jaclyn Gleason ’10 sits, under a slender pear tree. The young, 13-foot-tall sapling provides no actual shade or physical relief from the muggy, mid-August afternoon, but the tree is still a great comfort to her; it was planted last spring, in tribute to her late husband, Liam Gleason ’07, whose stature, steadfastness and irrepressible spirit earned him the nickname “The Tree” — a moniker given to him by UAlbany’s men’s lacrosse head coach, Scott Marr.
Gleason was a former UAlbany lacrosse defenseman on the school’s legendary 2007 squad, the University’s first lacrosse team to host and win an NCAA playoff game, and the first to advance to the quarterfinals. He later served the team as an assistant coach and held successful head coaching positions at Saint Rose and Siena colleges. Gleason, whose heartbreaking death at 41 followed a fall in December 2025, is remembered for the indelible mark he left as a player, coach, role model and father of three. In October 2026, UAlbany Athletics inducted Gleason into its Hall of Fame, alongside the entire 2007 team. It’s an especially meaningful honor to Gleason’s wife, a former Great Danes soccer standout and captain.
“He would be honored that he’s going in [as an individual], but, at the same time, he would say it’s just the 2007 [team] that he really cares about,” she says, recalling how the team rallied to support her family after his death. “Grief is quite a journey, but the 2007 class has stepped up like you would never believe.” That 2007 team includes Merrick Thomson ’07, Gleason’s former teammate, coaching colleague, best friend and godfather to the Gleasons’ youngest child.
“We will do anything for [Jaclyn and the kids] to make sure that they just have a great life,” Thomson said. “We’re not going to fill the void, but we’re going to ... always show up and be there for them.”
Thomson, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2024, and now entering his 11th season on the coaching staff, knows what it means to be extraordinary on and off the field — something he saw daily in his friend of two decades. That spirit is now embodied in The Liam Gleason Humanitarian Award, bestowed by each of the 77 NCAA Division I teams, to an exceptional player demonstrating leadership qualities, sportsmanship and community service.
“It represents the best in the game of lacrosse,” says Thomson of the award. “And Liam represented that. He was a great person.”
Athletic achievements and coaching success aside, there was simply nothing more important to Gleason than family. He relished his role as a father of three — Kennedy, Penn and Tate — never missing a pediatrician visit or a chance to play with them in the backyard, remembers Jaclyn Gleason, tearing up at the memories. She says her husband learned the best lesson on parenting from the father of renowned UAlbany lacrosse players Miles and Lyle Thompson, brothers and the first Native Americans to win the prestigious Tewaaraton Award as the top college lacrosse players in the United States in 2014. The elder Thompson shared that spending time with your children was the way to make them good humans. “So, with Liam, that was how we raised our kids,” she beams.
Gleason is often described as “larger than life,” and his gregarious and welcoming personality drew all types of people to him, even despite his highly favored and often-worn blue waffle-patterned shirt that he joked brought out his eyes. He simply loved life and understood its value.
Four months before his death, Gleason returned home from renewing his driver’s license, only to discover that it didn’t display the emblem indicating that he’d elected to be an organ donor. Distressed and with family dinner plans on the line, Gleason insisted on solving the problem. “‘I have to go right now,’” Jaclyn recalls him saying. “He took it very seriously.” It turned out that his donor designation was, indeed, active, and just months later, after his death, his gift saved four lives. Seeing her husband’s impact, Jaclyn Gleason registered as an organ donor herself.
Toward the end of this interview, she points to a paved pedestrian path, remembering how her mischievous husband, defying wisdom (and bystanders’ protests), would drive his brown Hyundai Santa Fe down it for closer field access. “People were like, ‘You can't do that!’ and he was like, ‘Yes, I can,’” she laughs. “So, it just makes sense that the tree is right here — in his lane!”
The sounds of the pep band have subsided; the heat and humidity have not. Jaclyn Gleason is headed home to their children, but she’ll be back many times. There’s the Hall of Fame induction, class reunions, and lacrosse camps for the kids — and there’s The Tree, standing tall over the lacrosse field and growing stronger each day.