Filed under: Maryland
Dozens of youngsters had shown up at an indoor sports complex in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on a muggy June day to participate in the Fourth Charlie Wysocki Football Camp. The camp's namesake didn't take part in many of the activities, watching from the metal bleachers nearby, or a table during lunch break and, when the drills moved outdoors, from under a tree.
The former Maryland running back and star eagerly signed autographs and posed for pictures with the campers and their parents, but never talked to them at length -- nor did he say much to a reporter chronicling it all. He spoke slowly, deliberately, often with one-word or one-phrase answers, and seemed distracted or disinterested much of the time.
"It's really not Charlie,'' Daniel LaMagna said later that day. LaMagna owns a semipro football team in the area, the Northeast Pennsylvania Miners, and organized the camp in honor of his friend of the last six years. LaMagna said that Wysocki also had a radio interview scheduled for the weekend to publicize the camp, but Wysocki's mood had darkened enough in recent days to convince him to call it off.
Most of the time, LaMagna said, "Charlie will talk your ear off. He will talk your ear off. There were times where he would call you every day -- he's like a second wife.'' LaMagna laughed, then added, "Now that he doesn't call, I say, 'Wow, why is he not calling?' "
He generally knew why, though, and a month later Wysocki was, indeed, calling and talking and laughing and, most significantly, recalling details from more than three decades earlier. The variations in mood, temperament and communication are symptoms of what has been described as a severe form of bipolar disorder. Wysocki, 50, has suffered from it for nearly his entire adult life, along with between five million and six million other Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Commentsk2 snowboards
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