Baldwin grad Robert Healy proves to be 'a true beast' at Transplant Games of America

His competitiveness just won’t go away.

Duquesne and Baldwin football alumnus Robert Healy took first place in the discus throw and shot put competition at the 2022 Donate Life Transplant Games of America, smashing records among living donors and all-time donors in both events.

The 39-year-old Healy, a 2001 Baldwin graduate, also posted the longest overall jump and was a medalist in the 100-meter dash, softball throw and pickleball events.

The Transplant Games are held every two years and recently took place July 29 to Aug. 3 in San Diego.

Sara McMahan is the digital brand and content coordinator at CORE. She attended the Transplant Games as a CORE representative and member of Team Alleghenies.

“Robert was a true beast at Transplant Games,” McMahan said. “It’s important for everyone to see that living donors and recipients can live a perfectly healthy life and I didn’t see a better example of that than Robert on the field.”

Produced by the Transplant Life Foundation, the Transplant Games honor the lasting legacy of donors who gave the ultimate gift of life, highlight the need for and importance of organ, eye and tissue donation, celebrate the success of transplantation, and increase the national and state registry numbers.

“People don’t realize how easy it is to be a match for someone needing a lifesaving organ,” Healy said. “Blood type doesn’t really matter, and age is hardly a factor. People need livers and kidneys. You get to keep one kidney, and your liver grows back.”

TGA gathers together thousands of transplant recipients, living donors, donor families, individuals on the waiting list, caregivers, transplant professionals, supporters and spectators for what is termed “the world’s largest celebration of life.”

Categories are based on age, gender and donor/recipient.

“Basically, if you’re relatively healthy and willing to be someone’s hero, you can do it,” Healy said. “I try to live my life the way Roberto Clemente did. I love that Clemente used his physical abilities to be a humanitarian. That was my motivation for competing at the Transplant Games. I wanted to win and break the records, and I did. By doing so, I showed people that you can have this major operation and still be strong and active.”

Video by Alex Moeller

Along with competing in football, the well-spoken Healy was an all-state discus thrower at Baldwin and an Atlantic 10 gold and silver medalist in the discus and shot put at Duquesne.

“Two years ago, I learned about the Transplant Games, an Olympics-style competition,” Healy said. “My daughters watch a YouTube show (“Operation Ouch!”) starring doctors from the United Kingdom, and one of the show’s patients was a transplant recipient who competed in her country’s version of the Games.

“A Google search later, basically, I signed up for the 2022 San Diego Games. I love sports and competition, but I also wanted to show people, especially active people, that you can make a life-saving donation and get your health and strength back. I felt the positive pressure of performing well could serve as an example. It was highly motivating.”

Healy competed in the donor category in the 30-39 age group.

“I was the old guy in my group,” he said.

Video by Stephanie Heard

The Transplant Games effectively were canceled in 2020 because of covid restrictions; they were virtual with no real competition.

“These were my first real Games,” Healy said, “and, no doubt, my experience while at Duquesne helped.”

In 2016, the affable Healy donated a piece of his liver to his father-in-law, Whitehall resident Gary Vamos.

“Because of that, Gary is alive and well,” said Healy, a Brookline native now living in Carrick who was named president of South Park Boxing Club on Sept. 13. “His daughter and I are divorced but we get along very well.

“Gary (nicknamed Moose) and I spent about a week in the hospital recovering, but we’re now both in great health. The liver grows back.

“Involuntary cheering and yelling from my recovery room during the 2016 Stanley Cup Finals probably didn’t help my recovery, but pain meds are a wonderful thing.”

Healy is a professor at Duquesne and is the co-founder of the sports information and media major at the university. He is in his ninth year teaching fulltime in Duquesne’s media department and was recently named a Pittsburgh Magazine 40 under 40 winner.

”Starting the sports information and media program is my greatest professional accomplishment,” Healy said. “I founded it with Dr. Robert Bellamy during the 2016-17 school year.

“We’ve been tremendously successful with this major, with students working for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Steelers and many other teams in professional and college sports, not to mention those working in sports media.”

Healy was part of a Pittsburgh contingent that traveled to the West Coast for the Transplant Games. He topped all competitors by 40-plus feet in the discus throw and nearly 10 feet in the shot put.

Video by Sara McMahan

“I was disappointed that my swimming events were canceled (due to a medical emergency at the pool),” Healy said. “A virtual competition for swimming will wrap up in September.”

There was no disappointment in the local athlete’s West Coast experience.

“San Diego’s weather is ideal. It’s a beautiful place and seemingly always comfortable,” Healy said. “I went to Petco Park the day the news of Juan Soto’s trade broke, and the energy was awesome.”

Healy enjoyed an accomplished athletic career in both high school and college. He was an imposing 6-foot-3, 305-pound athlete at Baldwin and currently weighs around 235.

Healy was a letterman on Baldwin’s only conference championship football team in 1999 and a two-way starter in 2000. He was a WPIAL runner-up and PIAA medalist in the discus in 2001; he also was a WPIAL medalist in the shot put in 2001.

At Duquesne, Healy was a two-time all-conference guard on the football team, which competed in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

“We never lost a conference game in my four years there,” Healy said. “After four years of football, I stayed for grad school and a fifth year of track and field.”

Healy dropped down to 260 pounds in the spring of 2006. and broke the school’s shot put record while also winning the Atlantic 10’s discus championship. He also placed second in the shot and third in the hammer throw.

Healy is the only athlete in school history to medal in all three throwing events at a conference championship meet.

He was named Atlantic 10 Student-Athlete of the Year for track in 2006 and was an Academic All-American thanks in part to his 4.00 GPA.

He’s hoping his next stop competitively is the World Transplant Games in Australia in 2023.