In sports, players and their super fans come together to weep, celebrate and to find catharsis for the human experiences of living within time and chance, finding hope and experiencing loss.
Purdue student Tyler Trent, who battled osteosarcoma bone cancer for five years, became an icon because of his passion for the Boilermaker football team. Inspired by the Boilermakers, Trent dreamed of becoming a sportscaster and statistician. He documented his beloved Boilermakers in writing, a book and social media. He served as honorary captain in the 2017 and 2018 Hammer Down Cancer games and the December 2018 Music City Bowl in Nashville, TN. Trent not only shared his passion for Purdue, but raised money and awareness for cancer research.
After Trent passed away on January 1, 2019, donors established the Tyler Trent Courage and Resilience Award, a scholarship for undergraduate students at Purdue’s West Lafayette campus who have faced daunting adversity while pursuing higher education.
In its fifth year, the Tyler Trent Resiliency and Courage Award went to Daniels School of Business student Andrew Kinder. Kinder, an honors student in high school, began his first year at Purdue while on oral chemotherapy for his leukemia diagnosis.
“Being linked to Tyler Trent is a huge honor,” says Kinder. “I grew up a huge Purdue fan and was at the Ohio State game when we upset them. After being diagnosed with cancer I looked to Tyler's story as a guide on how to live while being sick. Yes, I knew everything was different, but the way Tyler handled himself was truly admirable. More recently, I wanted to take another step to becoming more like Tyler and raise awareness and funds for cancer research. I recently became philanthropy chair for my fraternity which donates our funds to the Purdue Cancer Research Center. Being linked to Tyler is the greatest compliment I've been given.”
Read more about Kinder's unique story of courage.
In creating the Tyler Trent Pediatric Cancer Research Center, the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research is working to fight pediatric cancers and to beat osteosarcoma, the rare bone cancer that took the life of beloved Purdue alumnus Tyler Trent. To join in the fight, you can donate here to the center’s life-sustaining research.
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