Purdue Fan and Cancer Activist Tyler Trent Has Died
Written by SOURCE on January 2, 2019
Purdue superfan Tyler Trent, whose battle with a rare form of bone cancer and advocacy became a nationwide story, has passed away. He was 20 years old.
Trent was fighting a third round of a cancer called osteosarcoma. He died on New Year’s Day, leading to a flood of tributes from sports world figures who had met him.
“His passion for life, his passion for Purdue football, his passion to do whatever he could, even in the midst of this crazy, horrible journey that he was on,” Trent’s doctor Jamie Renbarger told the IndyStar. “He still wanted to help people. He was just a really genuine human being.”
The aspiring sportswriter found himself co-hosting SportsCenter, hanging with the NBA on TNT hosts, and visiting with quite a few Indiana sports locker rooms after his connection to the Purdue football team became national news. Trent used his enhanced profile to launch a charity that provides services for families struggling with cancer diagnoses.
“What gave him a sense of love and purpose touched all of us and inspired all of us,” Purdue Coach Jeff Brohm told the IndyStar. “There was no quit in him. There was a lot of fight in him. It’s like you couldn’t get him down. While I’m sure he was in pain and suffering, he put a smile on his face.”
