*This story was corrected to properly address Perry’s girlfriend Hunter Hardin and add that Perry’s uncle Steve Hamilton was in attendance. We apologize for the inaccurate information.

DURHAM — As alumni came back to Riverside for its homecoming football game, the return of the No. 65 jersey was at the center of it all.

Riverside honored former football player and 2014 graduate Steven Perry on the sideline following the third quarter of Friday’s matchup against Northern Durham. While serving as a North Carolina state trooper, Perry died in a wrong-way crash in Durham on March 1.

Those close to Perry — including his girlfriend Hunter Hardin, his daughter Sasha, his mother Cheryl Perry, Durham Public Schools Athletic Director David Hackney, Riverside Athletic Director Robert Duncan, uncle Steve Hamilton (former NFL Super Bowl champion with Washington) and some of Perry’s former high school teammates — presented his framed game-worn jersey to the crowd in his honor.

“It’s surreal being here without him,” Bill Vogel, one of Perry’s teammates, who played alongside him on the offensive line, said. “I think that every time I’ve been on this field has been with him. So, to be here without him is different and challenging.”

Said Vogel, “Really just an amazing friend. Someone who would do anything for you, whether it was on the field, whether it was off the field, he was there for me (and) for all of us here all the time. Just miss him tremendously.”

Perry played center on the 2013 team that went 8-4 after winning a combined four games in the previous three seasons. The Pirates also ended a six-year playoff drought.

“We changed the culture over the time that we were here,” Vogel said. “I remember being here as freshmen and all of us getting together at that age and sticking with it for four years. You know, you see people leave and they want to go to a better school or something where they have a bigger program or a better program, but we stuck with it and we made our program better, and Steven was a huge part of that.”

As Riverside tried to pull off a comeback victory Friday, Perry’s former teammates reflected on what it would be like if he was out on the field.

“Point would’ve been get your mind right,” Cole Weaver, another former Riverside offensive lineman who played alongside Perry, said.

Said Vogel, “He would’ve been serious, for now. After the game was over, he probably would’ve been cracking some jokes and stuff, but right now, he’d still be locked in.”

Patrick Volk spread some laughter in Perry’s memory, sharing a moment from a pre-game warm up that he and his foot would never forget.

“In this very jersey, he busted my foot and busted it open, and we glued it back together,” Volk said. “It was the first time we wore these jerseys.”

After graduating from Riverside, Perry went on to play football at North Carolina Central University. There, he played 30 games and helped the Eagles win the 2016 MEAC title and clinch a Celebration Bowl berth.

Perry earned a degree in criminal justice and spent nearly seven years with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, serving his home county of Durham. He also owned and operated his late father’s powerlifting gym, training young athletes. Some of his trainees went on to play in college and the NFL.

“He is worth honoring,” Volk said. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but he’s worth honoring, and in every second, in every moment that he gets that representation, he deserved that. And he definitely started earning that while he was on this field.”