Remembering the Too-Short Life of Purdue Great Rondale Moore
These are the toughest columns to write.
My friend and longtime Journal and Courier colleague Jeff Washburn used to write heartfelt tributes for high school athletes who died too young and for Purdue greats who he admired. I always admired his skill of persuading grieving family members to talk about their children or their husbands/fathers.
I only met Rondale Moore once, but when the news came that the Purdue All-American and wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings ended his life Feb. 21 in a garage in New Albany, Ind., I wondered if it was someone’s idea of a sick joke. Just in the last week alone, internet trolls have posted “news” about the deaths of Gene Keady and former Purdue guard Billy Keller. Thankfully, they are very much alive.
Why would a 25-year-old man, who accomplished his years-long mission to play in the NFL, be in so much pain mentally to choose to die? That’s a question I am speculating his family, friends and former / current NFL teammates have been asking themselves.
Professional athletes to us have it all. Millions of dollars, fame, their images immortalized on football cards. Their autographs are sought by fans who want a piece of that fame for themselves.
That’s how I met Moore. Not in my role as sports editor of the Journal and Courier but as Purdue sports memorabilia collector.
I didn’t count how deep the line for his signature was that springtime Saturday morning inside the Mollenkopf Athletic Center, which doubles as the Purdue football practice facility. The whole team and head coach Jeff Brohm were signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans.
By this time, Moore had accepted his fame as just the third freshman in college football history to earn consensus All-America honors. The other two you may have heard of: Herschel Walker and Adrian Peterson.
Moore seemed superhuman, having squatted 600 pounds in the Purdue weight room before even playing a game for the Boilermakers. When he was on the field, Moore possessed speed and moves Purdue fans hadn’t seen since the likes of Rod Woodson and Leroy Keyes decades earlier.
One thing I did notice that spring day: Moore was friendly to fans and appreciated their admiration while signing a photograph or schedule poster. One concession to his emerging fame was the presence of Greg Brohm, the head coach’s older brother. He watched Moore’s every signature from a vantage point behind his shoulder. I’d like to think Greg Brohm was protecting Moore from those who would ask for extra signatures to later sell on eBay.
When it was my turn, I handed him a photo from his spectacular debut in a Purdue uniform against Northwestern, when he broke Otis Armstrong’s record for total offense in a single game with 313. He asked if I’d like it personalized, to which I said yes. I congratulated him on his freshman season and moved on.
That photo hangs on an upstairs wall in my home. I see it every day, just inches away from another autographed photo of a young man who will also be 25 years old forever, Caleb Swanigan.
While there was more than a foot in height separating Moore and Swanigan, one trait they shared was their drive to become a professional athlete. Swanigan worked out constantly when he wasn’t playing basketball or going to class at Purdue. Swanigan transformed his body from a 300-pound plus adolescent into a lean 260 pounds when he came to Purdue.
Every rebound, every basket Swanigan scored for a team he led to a Big Ten championship in 2017 was for two purposes: winning and being an NBA first-round draft pick. He succeeded on both measures. The Portland Trail Blazers took Swanigan 26th overall in the 2017 NBA Draft. That night, Swanigan expressed the joy of accomplishing his goal.
“Being selected tonight in the NBA draft is a dream come true,” Swanigan said. “I have been thinking of this moment for a long time. I know this is only the first step in my professional career, but I am extremely excited for to begin this journey.”
Alas, the journey was a short one for Swanigan. Portland traded him to Sacramento during his second season. Less than a year later, the Kings sent him back to the Trail Blazers. That trade came just weeks before the COVID pandemic shut the country down.
For personal reasons which were never divulged, Swanigan opted not to join his Portland teammates in a secure location outside Orlando, Fla., created by the NBA to protect its players during the final eight games of the 2019-20 regular season and into the playoffs.
Concern for Swanigan’s well-being came a year later when he was arrested for misdemeanor drug possession. Photos from that period showed Swanigan had gained a significant amount of weight. A family history of diabetes and excessive obesity likely contributed to his death on June 20, 2022, in Fort Wayne. The Allen County coroner ruled Swanigan died of natural causes.
Since I don’t have an M.D. or Ph.D. after my name, I won’t speculate why Moore ended his life. The facts are that he did not play a single regular season game for either the Atlanta Falcons or Minnesota Vikings the past two seasons due to serious knee injuries suffered in preseason games. Moore earned his fame at Purdue with a combination of extraordinary strength and speed. Perhaps the knee injuries robbed Moore not only of his speed but of his confidence that at 5-7 he belonged in the NFL.
Moore is the second active NFL player in the last 3 1/2 months to die from an apparent self-inflicted wound. In early November, Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland took his life after a police pursuit where speeds reached more than 145 miles per hour.
Kneeland, 24, had sent text messages that prompted the team’s chief of security to request police conduct a welfare check on Kneeland.
Moore’s death also brought back memories of a former co-worker, softball teammate and just an all-around great man, husband and father. His professional life had suffered a setback, but no one thought he was so distraught that suicide was even a possibility.
If only he had known how many people cared for him outside his family. That day in the waiting room at the former St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lafayette, dozens of people came to support his wife and to say goodbye before he was taken off life support. I remember expressing my grief to a friend who had driven three hours to say goodbye. “Why would you do this over a job,” I said. No one knew.
Be kind to people you meet because you don’t know what they may be going through. In my current job at Purdue University, I am on alert for students who appear to be struggling with something, whether it be academics, a boyfriend / girlfriend problem or just adjusting to being an adult and away from home for the first time.
When in doubt, ask “how are you doing?” An act of kindness and concern may be the tipping point for someone who believes no one cares.
Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide or is in emotional distress, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or at 988lifeline.org.
Kenny Thompson is the former sports editor for the Lafayette Journal & Courier and an award-winning journalist. He has covered Purdue athletics for many years.