""It would be a shame for you to check out by yourself when you like people so much," Bob Trumpy told her, according to an Associated Press story about the call. "This is a cry for help, and I'm not going to let that go unheard." Sugar's son finally came on the line and revealed where they lived. Emergency workers were able to reach her before she harmed herself."
""I sure didn't feel like a hero after that," he told the Los Angeles Times years later. "She wasn't the only one who had to go to a crisis center for therapy. So did I." Trumpys' grandfather had taken his own life when Trumpy was six years old. After his conversation with Sugar, he told the Cincinnati Post, "I kept seeing my grandfather in his coffin.""
"Sports radio can be loud and raucous, blaring with bluster and bellowing. "Can you believe that? What were they thinking?" But one night in 1983, the first person to call in said her name was Sugar. She said she had been drinking, and was married to a man who beat her. She said that she hadn't worked for more than a decade and could not support her 19-year-old son. And, Sugar said, she wanted to end her life."
Bob Trumpy was an All-Pro tight end for the Cincinnati Bengals who later became a sports broadcaster known for a booming voice and blunt opinions. He hosted Sportstalk on Cincinnati's WLW Radio. In 1983 a caller named Sugar said she had been drinking, was married to an abusive man, had not worked for more than a decade, could not support her 19-year-old son, and wanted to end her life. Trumpy kept her talking live for two and a half hours, secured her location through her son, and emergency workers reached her before she harmed herself. The episode affected Trumpy deeply because his grandfather had died by suicide when Trumpy was six. Trumpy later announced NFL games, Super Bowls, and the Olympics for NBC Sports.
Read at www.npr.org
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