The Night We Brought a Tyler Talk to the Pit
Last September, the Chris Eaton Foundation partnered with UNM Athletics to bring Mark and Kym Hilinski to Albuquerque. Their son Tyler was a quarterback at Washington State who died by suicide in 2018. Since then, his parents have traveled the country telling his story through Hilinski's Hope, in conversations they call Tyler Talks.
On that night at the Pit, they told it to us: about 400 UNM student-athletes, plus hundreds of high school athletes, coaches, teachers, and parents from across the Albuquerque area.
This is the conversation our Foundation exists to have. We lost Chris the same way the Hilinskis lost Tyler, and we know what silence costs. Watching a room that size with athletes who compete for a living, coaches who shape them, and parents who love them sit with that story and start asking real questions about mental health was exactly what "healthier coaches, healthier athletes, healthier communities" looks like in practice.
Student-athletes are told to be tough in a hundred ways before anyone tells them it's okay to struggle. The Hilinskis say the quiet part out loud: strong people hurt too, and reaching out is the strong move.
Albuquerque Journal sports editor James Yodice was in the room, and his column captured the night better than we ever could. It opens: "It's the questions. Always the questions."
Our deepest thanks to Mark and Kym Hilinski and Hilinski's Hope, to UNM Athletics, and to every coach who brought their team.
If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 — the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Reaching out is the strong move.
