Former Boston College baseball star Pete Frates, champion of Ice Bucket Challenge, dies at 34 of ALS

Former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates, who was known for championing the Ice Bucket Challenge that generated millions in donations, has died, the Frates family said in a statement released Monday through the university.

Frates had been fighting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gherig's disease, after being diagnosed in March 2012, when he was 27. The statement said Frates “passed away surrounded by his loving family, peacefully” at the age of 34.

Through the Peter Frates Family Foundation and Team Frate Train, Frates helped spark the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in August 2014, a fundraising cause that spread rapidly through social media shares that asked people to either donate to ALS research or pour a bucket of ice water on top of themselves. Many both donated and poured the water on themselves and shared the videos through their social accounts. The challenge then asked people to nominate others to take the challenge.

According to the ALS Association, the Ice Bucket Challenge raised $115 million over an eight-week period in the summer of 2014.

“In his lifetime, he was determined to change the trajectory of a disease that had no treatment or cure,” the statement reads. “As a result, through his determination — along with his faithful supporters, Team Frate Train — he championed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. In August of 2014, the historic movement pioneered social media fundraising and garnered donations globally that resulted in better access to ALS care, genetic discoveries, treatments and, someday, a cure.  He was a beacon of hope for all.”

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Frates was a center fielder for the Eagles from 2004-07 and became a captain his senior year. Frates set a modern Boston College record by recording eight RBI in one game after he went 4-for-6 with a grand slam, a three-run home run and an RBI double in a game against Maryland in April 2007.

He played professionally in the German Baseball League in Hamburg and also coached in Germany at the youth level.

A date and time for the funeral services has not been set, but the family said it will be at St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish, which is on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

“The Frates family wishes to express its sincere gratitude for the abundant love, kindness, and support we have been the recipients of during the past eight years,” the statement reads.