Elk Grove sports journalist remembered by community after battle with rare dementia

ELK GROVE — The Elk Grove community is remembering the life of longtime local sports journalist John Hull.

John died a month before his 70th birthday at the beginning of September after he was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia.

"He built people up around him because he wanted to know what you had to say," John's wife, Marcia Hull, said.

John spent decades telling other people's stories, and now it is his loved ones turns to tell his.

"He had little songs and phrases for everything," Sylvia Osorno, John's daughter, said. "It just happened so fast."

Sylvia told me that her father started to experience neuropathy in his legs and feet in March. Countless doctor visits couldn't give a clear answer as to why his health was declining so quickly.

"In the last couple weeks of John's life, suffering from this disease, he wasn't the person we knew," Marcia said.

It was not until the last two weeks of his life that John got the diagnosis: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare form of rapidly progressing dementia caused by abnormal proteins called prions.

"Even if there had been an earlier diagnosis, there is no specific therapy that would allow you to change the outcome of the disease," said Dr. Stuart Cohen, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at UC Davis.

Dr. Cohen was not John's doctor, but said the deadly disease only impacts about one in a million people a year worldwide.

The disease caused John's body and mind to fail him during his final weeks.

"But his spirit was strong and all he wanted to do was worship," Sylvia said.

John started his career as a radio broadcaster both in other states and in Sacramento. He also became a sports editor at the Elk Grove Citizen, a teacher at local high schools and a college professor.

Sylvia said the faith her father had in God was felt by those around him in every walk of his life.

"He loves his students deeply," said Brian Rickel, the dean of Arts, Media and Entertainment at Consumnes River College.

Colleagues who worked with John at the college said he trained the next generation of journalists to have honesty and integrity.

"All of them benefited that he had an on-the-job experience that he could share with them in the classroom," said Gary Martin, who was a friend and colleague of John.

John's barber for the past 20 years, David Keen, said that John would talk to him all about the young athletes he was writing about.

"There wasn't anything that John wouldn't do for anybody," Keen said.

If you grew up an athlete in Elk Grove, chances are John wrote about you as he championed careers of local athletes who made it big.

"He would keep in touch with me and my son, Brian, who is one of the top pro skiers in the world," said Steve Detrick, who was a friend of John for 25 years.

Their sons grew up playing sports together and John coached Detrick's son over the years as well.

"John was probably one of the most present people I have ever known," said Martin.

His presence may be gone from the Elk Grove community he served for decades, but he leaves behind a gift—his legacy—that loved ones will carry on.

"I didn't realize how much he influenced other people," Marcia said. "His life is not done yet touching other people's lives and we are going to fan that flame.