The aside that Mark Hilinski floated to a room filled with mental health professionals who work in college sports wasn’t intended as any sort of plan. The Hilinskis attend this gathering every year, after losing their middle son, Tyler, to suicide in 2018. They know most everyone in attendance. Likewise, most know either them or their foundation, which focuses on mental health advocacy and resources.
Those who work in that particular space have gathered annually for years. The Hilinskis always give a similar update to a captive audience, the bulk of which want to understand how their foundation—and its impact—grew so quickly yet so organically. Here’s one example of how—from that day and that update.
This particular conference took place in Nashville. Mark stood before the room and hit the audience with numbers—of stories published on the foundation, of impressions for those stories or TV/radio segments and the theoretical dollar value such visibility would command in typical advertising revenue. That kind of stuff. But he also said something he hadn’t planned to say. The Hilinskis’ wildly popular College Football Mental Health Week had grown beyond anyone’s expectations. And, in that room, he added that maybe it should be renamed or rebranded to broaden the inherent ambition, shifting the focus beyond just football to football and all the other sports.
