PULLMAN, Wash. – On Friday morning, less than 36 hours before they would raise the massive crimson Cougar flag in front of more than 26,000 fans at Martin Stadium, Mark and Kym Hilinski all but floated out of a sports management class at Washington State University. They had just convened with dozens of students for roughly three hours, and they felt uplifted, inspired.
They had told the class about their son, Tyler; and his life, as a quarterback at WSU, as the sweetest and quietest and funniest of their three boys; and his death, by suicide last January; and their foundation, Hilinski’s Hope.