PULLMAN — Amid the din of a packed house at his “Kicking Cancer” charity bowling tournament and auction Friday at Zeppoz, Washington State placekicker Dean Janikowski told Cougfan.com the event was on track to raise as much as $30,000 for the Heather Janikowski Foundation, which helps kids in the greater Pullman-Spokane area who are fighting cancer. The final tally actually exceeded $30,000.
The foundation was launched last year by the Janikowski family in honor of Dean’s mother, Heather, who died of breast cancer in January 2022.
Dean, one of the top kickers in the Pac-12, put his right leg to work for the foundation last season with his “More than a Kick” fundraising effort in which people pledge to contribute to the foundation for each field goal and PAT he makes.
“Last year we raised $17,000, which averaged to $243 per extra points and $800-something per field goal,” Janikowski said. “I’ll be doing it again this season. My goal last year was $20,000 and this year I’m raising it to $25,000 … I know we’ve got a lot of donors and people are really excited for it.”
The Zeppoz event was a star-studded gathering. In addition to Dean and his family, attendees included the likes of WSU coach Jake Dickert, WSU legend Jack Thompson, team standouts Brennan Jackson and Ron Stone Jr., and Janikowski’s special teams comrades.
Janikowski is a fourth-year junior from Fallbrook, Calif. Last season the former walk on connected on 11 of 14 field goal attempts, with a long of 50, and hit 40 of 41 PATs for a total of 73 points. The season before he earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors after scoring 84 points on 14 of 17 accuracy on treys and 39 of 41 on extra points.