Caleb Swanigan - One Year Memorial

Caleb Swanigan was a loved son, an honored and revered basketball player, a Boilermaker, and a fairy tale basketball story. He went from overweight to McDonald's All-American, homeless to the NBA.

His trials came early and his tribulations persisted. His triumphs were were televised.

His end came quietly and too soon. He died at just 25 years old in Fort Wayne, Indiana an hour and a half away from the campus where a community of basketball fanatics fell in love with a forward that combined a strong frame with skill and touch, hard work with physicality, and a person who refined what Boilermaker basketball meant to this generation of players.

After a brief stint in the NBA, Caleb Swanigan returned to Indiana and left the limelight behind. It has now been a year since the passing of Swanigan and Boiler Upload would like to pay homage to a Purdue legend that was taken from us too early.

In January of 2017, Myron Medcalf of ESPN wrote a story on then National Player of the Year candidate Caleb Swanigan.

Swanigan told ESPN.com then, "I'm a dessert person. I'm not a potato chip [eater]. I can say no to those easy but desserts are really my thing."

Metcalf followed that quote by writing this:

'The sophomore knows one dessert could become two, then three, and over time, unhinge the weight roller coaster he rode to 360 pounds the summer before eighth grade.'

Swanigan's life up to Purdue had not been an easy one. His childhood existed in constant motion, from Indiana to Utah back to Indiana, sometimes homeless, always struggling to find stability or safety with one parent trying to support six kids while his father struggled with a drug addiction.

At 13, Caleb Swanigan was given a lifeline in the form of former Purdue standout, Roosevelt Barnes, who took Swanigan in and adopted him.

What happened next was a story made for a sports movie.

Barnes offered Swanigan support and stability. He worked with Swanigan on his diet and getting in shape and Swanigan went from homeless to Indiana's Mr. Basketball in four years. Swanigan initially committed to Michigan St. before changing to Purdue in part because of what Purdue offered in terms of continuing to look after his mental health and diet.

The transformation continued at Purdue where Swanigan became unrecognizable from his younger self.

At Purdue, Swanigan flourished with the structure Purdue offered him. During his final NCAA Tournament run with the team as a sophomore, while media flocked around the locker room talking to his teammates, Swanigan had headphones on in the middle of the room peddling on a stationary bike. Swanigan would help lead Purdue to the Sweet 16 that season.

Swanigan was a consensus All-American his sophomore season and Big Ten Player of the Year. He was a finalist for the Wooden, Naismith, and Oscar Robertson Player of the Year Awards and was awarded the Pete Newell Big Man of the Year Award.

He was the first person since Tim Duncan to finish the year averaging 18 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 assists in a season. He set the Big Ten record with 28 double-doubles, the 13th most in NCAA history.

That success at college catapulted Swanigan's story even further towards unbelievable.

Swanigan left after his sophomore year at Purdue to enter the NBA draft where he was taken 26th overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2017 draft.

But Swanigan's NBA career never took off. The sport story started to leak back into real life.

Swanigan was traded from the Trail Blazers to the Sacramento Kings. His playing time was inconsistent and he was eventually traded back to the Trail Blazers ahead of NBA's Covid season where he opted-out of joining the Trail Blazers in the NBA Bubble for personal reasons.

That December Swanigan was arrested for marijuana during a traffic stop, and the demons of his past seemed to have crept back up and taken hold of him.

Out of respect for loved ones, details of the last few months will be scarce. An Allen County Coroner's office confirmed that Swanigan's death was of natural causes at just 25 years old.

Caleb Swanigan's inspiring story of hard-work, perseverance, and overcoming childhood trauma came to a sudden, too-early ending.

We here at Boiler Upload will choose to honor Biggie on this day and remember all that Swanigan did at Purdue, the trials he had to overcome to get there, the ones he beat before and after, and ultimately, the ones that overcame him in the end.

Swanigan was a once in a lifetime Boilermaker.

Matt Painter had this to say on Purdue's website about Swanigan after his passing:

"The Purdue basketball family is deeply saddened and devastated at the loss of Caleb Swanigan. Caleb was a very thoughtful individual and a gentle soul who excelled both on and off the court. He made a difference in everyone's lives that he touched and he will be greatly missed."

A year spent covering Purdue, talking to athletes, people close to the organizations, and coaches, the thing that has caught me most off guard about being around these programs is how much some of the more familiar names in Purdue sports records books have struggled with their mental health at Purdue and beyond.

The players might be most similar with us in this regard. The things that haunt them are usually kept closest to their chest. They struggle the way your neighbor struggles, or the lady at the cash register, or the man pumping gas, or the friend you only see a couple times a year. Despite all their spotlight, tucked inside of them, hidden behind closed doors and away from cameras is the same human difficulties that cling to each of us.

So in awareness of that and in memory of Caleb Swanigan who fought quietly as hard as he fought on the court for rebounds, Boiler Upload will be making a $50 donation to the National Alliance on Mental Health in his honor and we encourage those of you who can, to do the same.

Donate to the National Alliance on Mental Health