Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Caleb Swanigan, the former Homestead and Purdue standout who played in the NBA, has died. He was 25. ... We heard the story over and over again.
We heard the story over and over again. Anytime Purdue basketball played between the years of 2015 and 2017 we heard it. And that was fine, because it was a good story. It was the story of a young man who grew up in a difficult environment that included homeless shelters, moving back and forth between Utah and Indiana with a mother trying to do her best with six children and a father who had fallen victim to drug addiction. It was the story of a young man who loved dessert, cheesecake especially, who seemingly used food to comfort himself in these awful situations. Ultimately he reached 360 pounds before he even set foot in high school. But then, something changed.
Caleb Swanigan was just 13 years old when former Purdue football player Roosevelt Barnes, at the behest of Caleb’s older brother, took him under his wing, ultimately adopting him, and bringing him to live in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Barnes understood what it took to excel both on the field and off and hoped to instill that drive in young Caleb. Unlike his adopted father though football was not the game for Swanigan. No, his game was basketball. Despite being 300+ pounds there was something to his game. Something that Barnes saw that he believed could change Swanigan’s life.
And so the work began. When you’re 6’2 and 360 pounds in the 8th grade you’re likely the biggest amongst your classmates in more ways than one. Hence the nickname, Biggie. For anyone out there who has tried to lose weight you know how hard it can be. It takes dedication to not just exercise but also eat right. The eating right is so important. And for someone who lived with food insecurity and an incomprehensible situation it can be extremely difficult. In a story posted to ESPN In January 2017 Swanigan himself pointed out the challenges of eating right:
“You think it’s something really small, but it just builds up,” he said. “One meal won’t kill you, but if it becomes three or four meals that are bad in a row, that’s when it starts to hurt your body.”
And so with the help of Harrison Barnes, Caleb ‘Biggie’ Swanigan began to get a little less, well, biggie. Swanigan worked his way into a high school basketball star and a highly sought after college recruit. After initialing committing to play for the Michigan State Spartans he flipped his commitment and chose to play for the Purdue Boilermakers. Swanigan would go on to be invited to the McDonald’s All-American game and be named Indiana’s Mr. Basketball. Incredible achievements that would have seemed impossible to the Caleb Swanigan from just five years earlier.
At Purdue Swanigan was an immediate impact player. His greatest skill was probably his rebounding. No one wanted the ball after it came off that rim more than him and if you thought you wanted it you were going to have to go through him. He was a proficient scorer as well but nothing compared to the rebounding. In his very first college game he finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds. He would go on to have 40 double digit rebound games out of a total of 69 games played in college. He would grab 20 or more rebounds four times during his sophomore season. That sophomore season was even more special if we look at it by itself. Forget those 40 double digit rebound games I mentioned above. Instead, just look at his sophomore season and you realize he had 29 double digit rebound games that season out of just 35 games. That’s 6 times over an entire season that he didn’t have double digit rebounds. It’s unlike anything I’d ever seen or am likely to see again. He had a nose for the ball that was unparalleled. Rebounding at the collegiate level is all about effort. And for a guy who changed his entire body and his entire life effort was never in short supply.
Following this incredible season for Swanigan he was named a consensus All-American becoming the first Purdue player to do so in six seasons. The Purdue sports release on this achievement spells out just how incredible this sophomore season was:
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Swanigan recorded one of the top statistical seasons in not only Purdue history, but NCAA history, en route to first-team honors. Swanigan averaged 18.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game while shooting 52.7 percent from the field, 44.7 percent from 3-point range and 78.1 percent from the free throw line.
He is the only major-college player (and one of two players total) to record 600 points, 400 rebounds and 100 assists in a season (Towson’s Jerrelle Benimon in 2013-14). He joins legendary Tim Duncan of Wake Forest (1996-97 season) as the only players in the last 25 years to average at least 18.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in a season.
Swanigan is the only player in the last 31 years (since the 1985-86 season) with at least 640 points, 430 rebounds and 100 assists.
His 28 double-doubles are the most for a player in Big Ten history and 13th most for a player in NCAA history, leading the country in that category. He set Purdue’s single-season rebounds record by almost 100 rebounds (436; Joe Barry Carroll is second with 352) and recorded 10 more double-doubles than any player in Purdue history.
Following this season he did the smart thing and declared for the NBA Draft. He was selected in the first round, 26th overall, by the Portland Trailblazers. He had done the unthinkable. The young man who weighed in at nearly 400 pounds had transformed his body and his mind and became a first round NBA Draft pick. It’s a fairytale. It’s something that you almost wouldn’t believe if you hadn’t seen it happen with your own eyes. Something that truly seemed too good to be true. I suppose now we know that in a way it was.