Michael 'Moose' Cusack, inspiration for Special Olympics, dead at 64
Since the first Special Olympics in 1968 in Chicago, it has branched out to more than 170 countries and millions of athletes.
Author: Associated Press
Updated: 6:50 PM EST December 21, 2020
CHICAGO — Michael “Moose” Cusack, a Chicago-area man who helped inspire the Special Olympics movement and who won multiple medals at the athletic event over years, has died. He was 64.
The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that Cusack, who had Down syndrome, died at Good Shepherd Manor in Momence, just south of Chicago, on Dec. 17 of natural causes associated with Alzheimer’s.
When he was 10, Cusack joined a Chicago Park District program for children with disabilities, where he met a young physical education teacher, Anne Burke, who is now the chief justice on the Illinois Supreme Court.