Rob Trumbley’s family: Hockey concussions led him to suicide

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While the NHL continually denies any connection between hockey and CTE, Trumbley has donated his brain to science

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Lisa Degelman believes her only sibling, younger brother Rob Trumbley, died by suicide last week at 50 after decades of anguish caused by his rough-and-tumble hockey career that started in Regina and led to the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors before brief pro stops in North America and an eight-year stint in England.

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“We have absolutely no shame in how this all ended because Rob’s finally at peace,” said Degelman. “He was in pain — physical, emotional pain for decades.

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“Suicide is so common in today’s world and it needs to be talked about. Especially these head injuries … I know too well what concussions can do to a person’s mental well-being or physical well-being and this needs to be talked about because there are so many hockey players this has happened to.”

Derek Boogaard. Wade Belak. Rick Rypien. They’re the well-known victims who made it to the NHL.

Three other hockey “enforcers” who died within a four-month span in 2011, all with Saskatchewan connections and all diagnosed posthumously with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Belak and Boogaard grew up in the province, like Trumbley, and Rypien played junior hockey for the WHL’s Regina Pats.

CTE is a long-term brain injury caused by concussions. It leads to depression and drastic mood swings, with wholesale personality changes often exacerbated by overusing drugs and alcohol to deaden pain or escape overwhelming anxiety. That happened to Trumbley during his playing career and afterwards.

“It wasn’t so much in junior but when he was playing in the States, everybody said he was a fan favourite,” said his father, Bob Trumbley. “You know how that goes, right? Go to the bar, get treated like a rock star. And he did end up with addiction problems, just like all these guys you read about.

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“After he went to England, then retired and came to work for me in the steel recycling business, I really noticed the mood swings. He wasn’t his jovial self, he would snap in a minute and the migraine headaches that he never had before. And his hands were always cold and sore. He would never admit he was drinking.”

Trumbley went several times into rehab, trying to save himself and a first marriage that produced a son, Ryan, and twin daughters Esme and Eden, who live in Saskatoon with their mother and are approaching 21 and 18 respectively. His second wife, Jennifer, has two teenage daughters and is from B.C. The family is working together to plan a memorial service.

Former hockey player Rob Trumbley and family
Regina product Rob Trumbley, a former junior and pro hockey player, in a 2018 photo with wife Jennifer, son Ryan and twin daughters Eden and Esme, Photo by Photo courtesy of Trumbley famil

Doctors recently realized CTE can be diagnosed in a living person, but most cases have been discovered during post-mortem examinations when an athlete has donated their brain to science.

Hockey players, especially those who fight regularly like Trumbley did throughout his career, are also susceptible to post-concussion syndrome (PCS), which causes headaches, dizziness and a sensitivity to light and noise. Trumbley’s family doesn’t know how many fights he was in nor the number of concussions he sustained from punches or crashing into opponents.

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“He knew it was going on,” said Bob Trumbley, who spent 20-plus years scouting for the Pats, Warriors and Tacoma Rockets, a WHL franchise from 1991-95. “He talked about it a lot, knew all the stories, knew all those guys.

“He set up a file (with the Canadian Concussion Centre) and he gave the OK for his brain to go there.”

According to its website, the CCC is dedicated to conducting “the research necessary to improve the diagnosis and treatment of concussions and their consequences.” After Rob Trumbley’s death in Chilliwack, B.C., a coroner called the family and was dutifully informed that although the former player had not followed through on the testing being offered by the centre, his brain was still to be sent to the CCC.

“It wasn’t rocket science to know he had — what we thought at the time — was post-concussion,” said Degelman. “He struggled for years and told us he suffered from debilitating headaches. He had to get special glasses, he couldn’t be around crowds.

“I know for myself and his wife, his kids and I’m going to speak for my parents, we feel so much peace knowing that his brain will be looked at because that’s what he wanted.”

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Concussions are caused by the brain bumping vigourously inside a person’s skull, a common occurrence in contact sports like football and hockey.

Although concussion awareness and treatments have become more advanced, to the point where pro football leagues are allowing their players to wear soft-shell Guardian Caps over their hard-shell helmets as extra protection against head hits, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his cohorts publicly deny any scientific connection between hockey and CTE.

Football has already lost that argument. Since a 2015 court ruling, the NFL has reportedly paid $1.2 billion to 1,600 players who have suffered dementia or other brain diseases linked to concussions. A recent Washington Post report revealed the league has refused to pay hundreds of players, including many who have died.

The NHL’s denial seemingly boils down to a simple fact: It doesn’t want to be sued. Such a costly, legal defeat could trickle down to other leagues, maybe even into junior and minor hockey.

Hockey leagues insist they are trying to eliminate fighting and hits to the head. Although suspensions and penalties are inconsistently enforced, on-ice rules are indeed stricter and there are fewer fights in professional and major junior hockey, the only two levels where combatants are not immediately ejected for a single scrap.

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Trumbley grew up idolizing Hockey Hall of Famer Clark Gillies, an uncle, and advanced to major junior hockey after tallying 28 points and 147 penalty minutes during 33 games with the 1991-92 Regina Pat Canadians of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League. His hometown Pats let Moose Jaw claim him, setting up some memorable matchups including one where Trumbley incited a brawl by drinking from the Regina goalie’s water bottle.

“He was uncommonly tough,” said Al Tuer, a pro scout for the New York Rangers who played defence for the Pats and later coached Trumbley for two seasons in Moose Jaw. “Quiet. A nice, nice kid and pretty sensitive. He was our captain his last year in Moose Jaw and that was a huge reach for him because he wasn’t that vocal.

“I remember talking to Lenny (Nielsen, Moose Jaw’s assistant coach) because we had a couple different kids we were thinking about and I said, ‘You know, if he gets the message then the rest will follow him for sure.’”

In 138 regular-season games with Moose Jaw, Trumbley had 36 goals, 53 assists and 886 penalty minutes, although the WHL didn’t include misconduct penalties in those totals. Tuer said Trumbley was a popular teammate who “never” had off-ice issues, so he was thrilled when his hard-working, smooth-striding player got selected by the Vancouver Canucks in the eighth round, 195th overall, of the 1994 NHL draft.

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“I had a feeling he was going to make it because he was a good skater,” said Tuer. “He was a complementary offensive guy, he had 40 points one season and he’d ride shotgun with some of the top-end, skilled players we had like Ryan Smyth, Curtis Brown and Grady Manson, kind of keeping the flies off the honey.”

Undersized for his era at five-foot-10 and 185 pounds, Trumbley never played for the Canucks.

He joined the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch for three games in 1996 and began the next season playing 11 games with the AHL’s Cape Breton Oilers. A farm team shared by the Canucks and Edmonton Oilers, Cape Breton was coached by Lorne Molleken, a longtime friend from Regina of Trumbley’s parents, Cathy and Bob. Molleken later coached the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and WHL’s Pats, Saskatoon Blades and Vancouver Giants.

“Rob played about 10 games for us before heading to the East Coast league,” said Molleken. “The next year they decided to move the franchise to Hamilton (as the Bulldogs) and Rob came to Edmonton Oilers camp.

“If I remember right, the first shift of the first scrimmage he went after either Bryan Marchment or Louie DeBrusk. That was Rob, right? Back in junior days, when Al Tuer was coaching the Warriors and I was with Saskatoon, one night in the Crushed Can (Moose Jaw’s old Civic Centre) there was a 5-on-5 at the drop of the puck and everybody got kicked out, including Rob. We’re best friends, but Rob’s mom wouldn’t talk to me for months!”

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Following two half-seasons in the East Coast Hockey League, Trumbley headed to England for eight seasons in a pro league where former Pat Frank Kovacs played and Mike Blaisdell was coaching. Trumbley’s penalty totals vastly outweighed his points, but again he was evidently well-liked by his teammates because he never hesitated when coming to their defence.

For two of his last three seasons before retiring in 2005, Trumbley was captain of the Newcastle Vipers.

Molleken hired Trumbley as a Blades assistant upon his return to Canada.

“I thought I’d like to give him a chance because he really didn’t know what he was going to do,” said Molleken, who has been visiting Trumbley’s family during the past few days. “It wasn’t good. You could tell he was doing drugs. You look back and maybe I could have done something at the time, I don’t know.

“He stayed with us that year and I knew he was getting into trouble off the ice because everything comes back to me, whether it’s the players or the coaches. At the end of the year I said, ‘Rob, I’ve got to let you go.’ His wife at the time was working at a radio station, he bought a truck and worked as a delivery driver but it was getting out of hand. He reached out for help and went to a rehab place. The last time I saw Rob was in Allan, Saskatchewan, at the Teen Challenge (addiction treatment centre).”

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Molleken was asked if he noticed Trumbley’s changing personality, brought on by numerous concussions, diagnosed and undiagnosed.

“I thought it was more drugs,” said Molleken. “I never thought of concussions at that point. In those days, we didn’t know that much about concussions. We just thought it was a headache at that time.

“In my latter years in the WHL, (longtime Spokane Chiefs general manager) Tim Speltz kind of spearheaded things, working with a doctor so we started doing baseline testing on these kids.”

There were no baseline tests when Trumbley played junior hockey, no medical or scientific method for measuring damage done to his brain from all the fights, collisions, drugs and alcohol. After seeing his behaviour change through the years, his family doesn’t need medical proof. They know Rob Trumbley’s brain suffered irreparable damage, leading to his depression and death, which Cathy stated unequivocally with this Facebook post above a picture of her son:

“PCS & CTE ARE REAL. Rob was our son, a brother, a brother-in-law, a son-in-law, an uncle, a husband and nephew and a father to his pride and joy kids, son Dylan and his twins Eden and Esme.”

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