On an odd January day in 1988, when a 9-year-old Ryan Day and his two younger brothers waited for their father to arrive home after work, they had to endure the devastating news of his unexpected suicide. “It was a shock,” Day said about the incident. But at the time, discussing mental health was heavily stigmatized, and the family didn’t even talk openly about what happened. It was only in his adult years that the Ohio State head coach understood his father’s depression.

The event changed the family’s life forever. But the OSU head coach never opened up about his father’s loss in public, nor did he discuss the mental health issues his father had until 2019, after a string of suicides struck a local high school. Since then, Ryan Day has been an advocate for mental health. In an interview on April 8, Day opened up about the responsibility he has, as Ohio State’s head coach and a public figure, to carry out his advocacy.

“I think the first thing is I lost my dad when I was young, and so that’s always been something that has been a part of my life,” Ryan Day said about his mental health advocacy. “It is a heavy topic, and so every time it comes up, it’s like, ‘you know we need a drink.’ As time went on, I realized that this is something that we can make sure is a positive thing. It’s about building resilience. How do you get stronger in the bench press? You bench press.

“How do you get stronger running? You run. And so, how do you get stronger mentally? There are a lot of different levels of mental health. I’m not getting into the chemical imbalances, but just in general, we have to face resistance, and we have to become more resilient…When I had an opportunity to have a platform that Ohio State has to offer, I told all of our players, you can make a difference. And when it’s all said and done, we all want to make a difference.”


Ryan Day and his wife started the ‘Ryan and Christina Day’ fund at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in 2019, and that’s when Day first spoke about his father’s loss. Day’s fund aims to support mental health wellness and help people facing similar challenges. The OSU head coach contributed $100,000 to the fund then and has been donating ever since.

In 2022, the Day made a $1 million gift to OSU’s Wexner Medical Center to fund research and services promoting mental health. Later in 2025, after winning the national championship and signing a seven-year, $12.5 million annual contract extension, he again contributed $1 million to his fund. But it’s not just the financial aspect; Day is also incorporating his ideas into his coaching philosophy to help his players.

“Mental health is something that affects everybody,” Day said. “I felt, for the community to see these big, giant human beings who everyone thinks have the world in the palm of their hand, show vulnerability and recognize the fact that mental health is something that we all need to be aware of. It could bring credibility to an area where a lot of times there’s shame and people don’t quite talk about.”

In August 2021, OSU’s Harry Miller walked into Ryan Day’s office and dejectedly told him about contemplating suicide. Ryan Day, having experienced his father’s loss, responded with compassion and patience. He immediately encouraged Miller to take time away from the team, connected him with a psychologist, and ensured he received additional help.

Miller has since publicly credited Ryan Day for saving his life with the environment he created at the program. That allowed Miller to speak openly about the mental health concerns he was having.

Harry Miller opens up Ryan Day’s support

Although Harry retired from football in 2022, he channeled his energy into doing meaningful deeds. He became a board member at Mission 4 Nicaragua, helping distribute food and medicine to less fortunate families in Los Brasiles. Miller has since made more than 12 trips to Nicaragua and even took his OSU teammates with him on the mission. Miller credited Ryan Day for everything.

“I wanted to physically change, but also because doing so sort of gave me the permission to say I’m a different person now,” Harry said. “I would have pervasive suicidal thoughts, and I just thought, ‘Well, this must be how everyone thinks. If I had a gun, I probably wouldn’t be here. He (Ryan Day) had had an experience himself, and that equipped him with the ability to respond quickly, and to not be […] dismissive about it.”

After giving Miller the time off, Ryan Day kept him on the scholarship and checked up on him regularly at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, where he worked out every morning. Although Miller didn’t play for Ohio State in 2022, he still sat on the sidelines, cheering for his team. His story is now widely known, and ESPN did a segment on it. None of it would have been possible without the OSU head coach’s support

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