On Saturday night, at kickoff of the Purdue Boilermakers’ big upset against No. 2 Ohio State, the Boilers’ home crowd collectively did a chant to honor a very special young man: Tyler Trent, a Purdue student and diehard Boilermaker fan who has terminal cancer.
Purdue honored terminal cancer patient Tyler Trent with its upset of Ohio State
He has a special story and connection to the Boilermakers.
Twitter/@theTylerTrent
The chant was planned ahead of time:
Tyler’s connection to the Purdue football program is really special.
He was first diagnosed with bone cancer when he was 15 years old. He went into remission in the spring of 2015, but two years later the cancer returned. Still, he decided to attend Purdue as a freshman last fall while receiving treatment. He became a Purdue celebrity after he camped out for the Michigan game last season and met head coach Jeff Brohm:
Here’s more on Trent’s Purdue stardom from the Journal and Courier:
He’s been on a whirlwind journey to help raise money for cancer projects while being Purdue’s No. 1 student fan.
He led the Boilermakers onto the field prior to the season opener against Northwestern as an honorary captain. Purdue’s volleyball team supported Trent with “TylerStrong warmups at a recent match.
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney reached out during the last year. In June, he was honored at the National Football Foundation’s honors dinner in West Lafayette, where he received the Patrick Mackey Courage Award.
He attended last year’s Purdue-Iowa game in Iowa City to take part in the tradition of waving to patients at the Children’s Hospital at the end of the first quarter.
Trent predicted Purdue would beat Ohio State and had said that was his biggest wish.
He predicted a 24-17 score.
“I knew we had a chance, but I didn’t think it was gonna be 42-20. That’s for sure,” he told ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi as the game wound down.
Trent was on the field at the end of the game.
Brohm sent him kind words in his interview right after the game with ESPN’s Maria Taylor. At that point, Trent was on his way to the locker room to have a moment with the team he’d just helped inspire to the most shocking blowout win of the year.
Late last month, Trent thought returning to Purdue wouldn’t happen.
His condition took a turn for the worst.
“I do want to give a shout out to Tyler Trent, a Boilermaker for life and is experiencing some hard times now,” Brohm said shortly after Trent’s announcement. “He’s a huge fan of ours and this university and we’re hoping all the best for him and we’re praying for him. Hopefully, everything goes in a good direction.”
Purdue’s football team visited Trent, too:
But before the Ohio State game, Trent got the go-ahead to make it back to Purdue:
Thank you Purdue, for making this young man’s story so very special. Stay strong, Tyler. We’re all pulling for you!
See More:
