He makes the appearances in his role as an outreach worker for the nonprofit Southfield-based MINDS mental health education group, and the University of Michigan Depression Center.

"If I can make a difference in someone else's life, then Jeff didn't die without a purpose," Hipple told the Detroit Free Press for a Wednesday story.

Hipple, who played with the Lions from 1980 to 1990, also is active in the National Football League Players Association that helps retired football players dealing with divorce, depression and substance abuse issues.

One in four high school students considers suicide, said Heather Irish, executive director of MINDS. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, suicide was the third leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24 in 2001, after unintentional injuries and homicide.

Hipple said his son had gone through many changes as a young child. Hipple and his first wife had divorced when Jeff was 5 years old and the boy lived in Utah with his mother, who married and divorced two more times. The boy was 14 when he moved back to Michigan to live with his father in Fenton and attend high school.

While the fall went well - Jeff was captain of the freshman basketball team at his Hartland high school - things started to slip in the spring, Hipple said.

When Hipple asked his son what was wrong the boy just told him, " 'I don't feel good,' " Hipple said. A doctor's tests came up with nothing.

The boy also said everything was fine at school, but eventually his grades dropped so low he was ineligible for basketball. He changed friends and went through a breakup.

"His whole demeanor degraded," Hipple said. "I knew he wasn't getting any sleep. I could tell he had been crying at night. His eyes would be red and puffy in the morning. He didn't want to get out of bed in the morning.

"It was a great shock and disbelief that this happened," he said. "Then there was a dawning of what happened. I wanted to go back in time. The feelings were all there, and I had missed them all."

Hipple, a Texas native, said he had been depressed as a teen and was a longtime drinker. His son's death sent him into a "self-destructive" stage that ended with a drunken driving arrest and a 58-day sentence in the Oakland County Jail.

After serving his sentence, he attended seminars and a mini-medical school session on depression. He later joined the University of Michigan Depression Center's board of directors and took a job with MINDS.

Among Hipple's messages to parents is that they should pay attention to youngsters' symptoms and report behavior changes to a doctor or counselor. Another message is that it's not their fault.

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