Purdue fans will always remember October 20, 2018.
Now both major stars from that night are gone way too soon.
Yes, that was Tyler Trent’s big night as Purdue thumped No. 2 Ohio State 49-20, but it was Rondale Moore that put on the show on turf that night. The call of, “HE’S STILL GOING!!!” when he refused to be tackled on Purdue’s final offensive touchdown is a treasured memory for Purdue football, right up there with Brees-to-Morales.
And now he is gone.
2018 Rondale Moore was transcendent. He showed us right from the beginning with two touchdowns in the first quarter of his collegiate career that he was going to be special, especially on the play where he took a jet sweep on 3rd and short, made one more, and left the entire Northwestern defense in the dust. He set records that year and became the Big Ten’s first ever true freshman All-American. He was one of those rare players that youknew something special could happen any time he touched the football that year. Purdue went 6-7 with a number of close losses to Eastern Michigan, Missouri, Northwestern, and Wisconsin, but even when the Boilermakers were behind and struggling offensively there was Rondale.
“Get the ball to Rondale and maybe he’ll do something.”
It even almost worked exactly like that in the rain soaked Eastern Michigan loss, where a certain touchdown was only stopped by the conditions and his own blocker running into him. He was one of those “Just how the hell do you stop that guy?” guys. He set foot on campus not long after another guy like him had just left, and who also is gone way too soon:
Caleb Swanigan.
It is unfortunate, but his career will be summed up as “meteoric”. That 2018 season was lightning in a bottle as he put up multiple highlight plays each game. He lived on the college football highlight shows that year. Then he was lost due to injury early in the 2019 season. The weird COVID year in 2020 was a quiet ending to his Purdue career, then more injuries followed once he was in the NFL. He finished the last two NFL seasons sidelines with knee injuries, the second occurring before his season with the Vikings even truly began.
Moore and Swanigan were legends in their time on campus, and they rightfully jumped to stardom early with allt he love and support our fandom can give them. It is hard to believe both are now gone, and at only 25 years old for each othem.
This one hurts. Rondale was a special player. Flashy in his actions, business-like in his personality. There was very rarely a celebration out of him. Just a preparation for the next play. He knew he was good and let his play do the bulk of the talking.
The staff and I here offer our condolences to his family, friends, and teammates.
