Drew Mulligan

Drew Mulligan was a successful hockey player who is remembered for being funny, happy, smart, protective, and having a larger-than-life personality. After noticing changes to his personality and lifestyle, his family donated his brain to the BU CTE Center after his passing where he was diagnosed with stage I CTE. We thank the Mulligan family for their generous donation and commitment to our research.

Read Drew’s story below.

Drew Mulligan lived and breathed hockey from a young age, even pretending he was in the NHL and asking his mom to sing the national anthem for him in the kitchen while he’d tap his little tykes hockey stick on the floor from the age of three.

Though he tried lacrosse, basketball, and baseball, hockey was always his main passion and his entire life.

Hockey was where “he made his best, best of friends. We have friends that are like family through hockey still to this day,” his sister Karly said. “And I think that’s part of the reason my brother loved it so much, it wasn’t just the actual sport, but what hockey kind of became for him. It was his whole life. That’s where he was the happiest.”

Drew’s whole family supported him and his successful hockey career which started when he was in second grade, earning his first accolade when his team won the state championship in the fourth grade. His senior year of high school, he played Juniors hockey. His family supported him, traveling for games, wearing his jersey, and bonding with the other hockey families who they call family now.

When his family thinks of him, they remember someone who was funny and happy, someone who had a larger-than-life personality and was very protective of those around him. His protective nature lent itself well to his hockey career as Drew was an enforcer and always looked out for his teammates. “I think my brother was very kind-hearted and just wanted to take care of people,” Karly said. “And his teammates were no exception.”

During his time playing hockey, Drew suffered several concussions, the first of which he sustained at a very young age. Karly and their mom, Janine, remembered he had documented concussions and predicted he also had concussions that went undocumented because at an early age, Drew learned that if he mentioned having symptoms, he wouldn’t be able to play.

During his senior year of high school, Drew moved to Pennsylvania to play Juniors hockey. His family notes they were already noticing changes in his personality and mental health at this time. Drew was depressed, more than just typical homesickness. While living with his aunt she said she couldn’t get him out of bed and would go home at lunchtime to try to get him up to do schoolwork. Here, in Pennsylvania, was where he suffered his most devastating concussion, resulting in him blacking out for hours. This is when Drew’s family really began to see the change. Upon returning home, they could see his depression firsthand, and his grades worsened.

His sister Karly remembers how naturally smart Drew was and described him as the type of person that wouldn’t have to study for a test to do really well. He only had to take his SATs once to get an incredible score.

After graduating high school, Drew went to High Point University in North Carolina, where he suffered his final documented concussion after slipping and hitting his head playing pick up basketball with friends. He later came home and attended trade school where he graduated top of his class as an electrician. His family noticed during that time that though he was performing well academically, he was struggling in his classes. What once may not have been a challenge for Drew to comprehend became one and his temper was short; he’d snap at people, which was very unusual for him, and then later apologize for it, admitting he didn’t know why he had snapped.

Even light head bumps seemed to trigger the symptoms that he had had after his concussions. His father took him to a specialist, and he was told he could be a candidate for early onset Alzheimer’s disease but at the time, post-concussion syndrome and CTE were not mentioned.

Drew was told he shouldn’t play hockey, or any contact sports, anymore but his family found him hiding his hockey bags in the bushes outside and sneaking out to continue playing.

Upon his passing at age 22, his family decided to donate his brain to the UNITE Brain Bank at the BU CTE Center, where he was diagnosed with stage I CTE. “When we started, me and my mom, really started diving into understanding CTE, it was almost like he was like a textbook case,” Karly said. “All of the symptoms, all of the behaviors, everything lined up.”

She remembers receiving the diagnosis, calling it bittersweet. “In some ways for me, personally, it was bittersweet because I didn’t have the answers for him then. But in some ways, we figured out the answers for him now.”

During his life, Drew could sense there was something wrong, but didn’t understand why. He would tell his sister that something felt off in his brain. Karly said receiving the results was “validating in some respects, because I think he might have felt like he was a little crazy. So it was kind of nice for me as his sister to be like, ‘see, I told you, this was something. Everything you were feeling was 100 percent valid and there was a reason for it.’”

“This wasn’t something he was reading into too much [and] this wasn’t him needing to toughen it up. This was something real that Drew was experiencing, and I think he fought it for as long as he could.”

Janine echoed similar sentiments and admitted that at first, her protective mother instincts kicked in and she didn’t want to donate her son’s brain. Facing the trauma of such a loss and making the decision to have her child even touched at that tragic point was too much to bare.“And now I am so grateful we did it. I can’t even tell you; I am so grateful,” she said. She also emphasizes the importance of having conversations about concussions with family members and says she is grateful for education and research.

After receiving the results, Karly and Janine recalled thinking they could either sit with their grief and let it consume them, or they could try and create something good out of their family’s tragedy. The hockey family began the annual Drew Mulligan Memorial Golf Outing which is attended by many who knew Drew and they are grateful for the many volunteers who help make the outing possible every year. Janine describes them as “beautiful friends that became family.” For the past seven years, the event has raised awareness and money for CTE research at Boston University.

They acknowledge how far CTE research has come, especially in recent years. “My brother has been passed for seven years now. For me, and I know my mom, it is amazing how much progress [has] been made since then. Like with education, with how much is talked about, with prevention. The resources that people have now versus then, in just seven years, is amazing,” Karly said.

They reflect on how differently they see sports after their experience. “The way I view sports is a little bit differently and I love football and I love hockey, but I also struggle because I know kind of what happens behind closed doors after a hit like that,” Karly said. “I know what happens to a family member. I know what happens to that person. So I don’t just see hits like that as a hit anymore. I see that as not even just, ‘oh, they’re gonna be out for two weeks.’ I see that as their life might be completely changed. They might never be the same after that.”

They are also grateful for the support they have received from other Legacy Donor Families they have met through their experience with the BU CTE Center brain donation program and the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

CTE can impact all ages and levels of play, from amateur to professional, and it is important for individuals to know resources are available and there are others having similar experiences who will understand what they are going through.

“Post-CTE was not all he was. There was so much more to Drew Mulligan than how he snapped and how short tempered he was, because that wasn’t my brother. My brother was so much more and he had so many amazing qualities,” Karly said. “I guess to me he’s much more than his diagnosis.”

Drew’s diagnosis was made by Dr. Ann McKee at the BU CTE Center. If you would like to support the BU CTE Center’s research and help give more families life-changing diagnoses, you can donate here.

If you or a loved one are interested in brain donation, please view our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and brain donation brochures for more information.

You can visit our Resources page to find resources for anyone struggling with suspected CTE symptoms.

This story was written by Amanda V. Cabral at the BU CTE Center. If you are interested in having a donor story written for your loved one, please reach out to her at avcabral@bu.edu.