What new Northwestern Wildcats quarterback Ryan Hilinski is involved with off the field truly transcends football. The South Carolina transfer lost his brother, former Washington State QB Tyler Hilinski, to suicide in early 2018.
Ryan and the rest of the Hilinski family honors his memory by running and promoting Hilinski’s Hope, a non-profit foundation focused on awareness for mental health issues. Ryan Hilinski met the Northwestern media corps for a spring ball Zoom call, and when asked to talk about himself, Hilinski’s Hope was the main topic of conversation.
“I am a family person first,” he said (transcript Inside NU). “Hilinskiโs Hope is a nonprofit organization that my parents and my older brother Kelly run that we started after my older brother Tyler passed away from suicide back in 2018. Mental health is an extremely important thing to me.
“I know, upon stepping on campus, a couple teammates already asked about Hilinskiโs Hope, so Iโve been able to connect with a couple guys already on the team. And if you want anyone to know anything about me, itโs that Iโm a person lover. I love making people happy. If thatโs with wins, Iโm gonna do that. If thats with straight Aโs, I’m gonna do that. I love to complete.”
“I love to win. Iโm a people pleaser. And Iโm a family first guy.”
Tyler died by an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound via a teammate’s .223 caliber rifle. On June 26, 2018, doctors revealed that Hilinski was found to have Stage 1 chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which caused the 21-year-old to have the ‘brain of a 65-year-old.” He was never officially diagnosed with having suffered a concussion at any point of his football career.
On their website, Hilinski’s Hope states their mission is “to educate, advocate, and eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness, while funding programs that provide student-athletes with the tools and resources that support their mental health and wellness.”
Asked to elaborate more on the organization and their goals, Hilinski said:
“My older brother Tyler passed away January 16, 2018 by suicide, and we didnโt know he was suffering. Tyler was one of the smartest kids youโll ever know, one of the happiest kids. He always had a smile on his ace.
“We actually played Fortnite the night before, and he texted me after, โYo, we gotta play Fortnite again.โ And that was that last text I got from him. And our family just decided that we donโt want any other family to go through this trouble. We donโt want any other student-athlete to have to suffer in silence.
“We want to erase the stigma of mental health, of โyouโre weak if you talk about mental health.โ No, you are the strongest person that anybody could ever meet if you can talk about it, because it takes a lot of guts to talk about it. It takes a lot of courage to go out, in this world today that we live in, to talk about your mental health, that youโre struggling, that you need some help.
“In this world, you canโt go through it alone, you need people on your left and your right. Football is a great analogy for it. You canโt run a successful play with ten guys. Such is life. You canโt go through life, you need your friends, your family, your peers, to help you when youโre struggling, to lift you up and bear that cross for you.
“I think thatโs the best way to talk about Hilinskiโs Hope. Iโm extremely grateful that I have the two best parents in the world that have been nothing but helpful since he passed away. Theyโre continuing to push Hilinskiโs Hopeโs message, they are doing Zoom calls left and right with people, trying to do in-persons whenever they can.
“And I have got the best big brother thatโs still here, Kelly Hilinski, who has worked his butt off. I get to play Call of Duty with him every day, even though heโs not here. I get to talk to him over the microphone, and we just talk about practice and stuff.
“Hilinskiโs Hope is still going, and it will go on forever because we donโt want Tylerโs name to die twice.”
Ryan Hilinski was a consensus four star recruit, the #2 rated pro style QB in his class. He started 11 games his freshman year at South Carolina, completing 58.1 percent of his passes, tossing 11 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Last September he lost his starting gig to Colin Hill and entered the transfer portal after the season.
He will probably be the QB1 when coach Pat Fitzgerald names it this fall. But really, after all he’s been through with the loss of his brother, and all the larger issues that surround Tyler’s suicide, talking about his stats, depth charts, recruiting rankings, all that stuff just seems small by comparison.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered withย News Now.ย Banks, the author ofย โNo, I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,โ has regularly appeared inย WGN,ย Sports Illustrated,ย Chicago Tribuneย andย SB Nation.ย Follow himย onย Twitterย andย Instagram.
