Frank Ragnow was an active hunter when he was younger.
Along the Iowa–South Dakota border, he went pheasant shooting with his father, Jon, not far from his grandmother’s home. During his playing career with the Arkansas Razorbacks, he went hog hunting once.
Ragnow jokingly said, “Kind of like a carnivore, killing your own kind.”
And he can still clearly recall the first time he and his father went deer hunting with Jack, one of his father’s buddies.
The friend ran a house remodelling business, and the group spent the night in the buddy’s display caravan, which they utilised as a hunting lodge. Jack couldn’t sleep, so he slipped the M. Night Shyamalan horror movie ‘Signs’ in the trailer’s VCR, and when Ragnow and his brother got up before dawn and made their way through the neighbouring cornfield for the morning’s hunt, they walked out ‘just screaming, like scared to death’.
“Deer hunting camp for us was just like spiritual,” Ragnow stated. “The same individuals were involved each and every year. Aside from the hunting, there are a tonne of other stories about the camp, the food, and everything in between. Simply put, I’m really appreciative that (my father) showed me that when I was small because I just think there’s so many things in the outdoors and it’s so good for kids and I’m incredibly grateful that he did that for me.”
As he prepares for his sixth season with the Detroit Lions, Ragnow is determined to support children in fostering a love of the great outdoors, particularly those who have experienced a parent’s death, as he did with his father six years prior.
At the Bald Mountain Shooting Range on Thursday, Ragnow held his first-ever skeet shooting competition. Proceeds from the event will benefit his Rags Remembered Foundation, which he established in remembrance of his father last year.
About 100 youngsters who have lost family members will participate in an outdoor camp on June 10th, six bereaved families will have a more private fishing experience later in the summer, and the foundation will supply supplies for in-home tailgates for additional families during game day.
Teams of four participated in the 14-station clay shooting competition on Thursday, featuring Ragnow and around ten of his Lions teammates, including offensive linemen Penei Sewell, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, and Graham Glasgow in addition to Red Wings standout Dylan Larkin.
“I’ve seen how other people, they lose family members, some people grieve and they grieve privately and I guess I – I don’t know, I just think you don’t realise, everybody’s affected by grief,” Ragnow stated. “And nobody seems to talk about it, which is terrible. Life goes on after the first two weeks, or something like that. It’s like, “I’m sorry for your loss,” and then you check up on them and life goes on and on. Thus, it’s simply significant to me.”
After his father tragically passed away in 2016 from a heart attack, hours after witnessing Frank lead Arkansas to a 52-10 victory over Alcorn State, Ragnow said he grieved in secret.
Ragnow acknowledged on Thursday that his father’s passing is “something that I’m still dealing with because you compartmentalise all those feelings and they’re going to catch up to you.” Ragnow participated in Arkansas’ game against Alabama the following week.
“Something that a lot of people don’t know that was a challenge for me was, so I trained in Minnesota after Arkansas and then to come to Detroit and leave my family, I had like PTSD,” Ragnow explained. Additionally, during my time here, including the first spring and the OTAs, I was constantly always worried about my family because it was like leaving them again. And I think a lot of that is because I didn’t talk to anybody about it.”
For Ragnow, the outdoors have turned into a haven where he still feels a connection to his father.
Ragnow and his spouse, Lucy, recently relocated to a neighbourhood on Lake St. Clair, where Ragnow regularly goes fishing and boating. While he frequently travels alone, he occasionally brings his teammates along on his outdoor adventures. He added that gatherings such as the ones his charity is hosting this summer are advantageous to both parties.
“We had one of those in-home tailgates and a comment that kind of hit me was there was a young boy who lost his older brother to suicide and his mom made the comment to us that he made the comment that it just felt so good to realise that other people are going through it, and people like someone with my platform,” Ragnow stated. “And I think that’s the coolest part is just being able to, because a lot of people, they grieve and it’s just like life goes on, and you don’t really grieve and for him to realise that everybody kind of goes through it I think it’s important.”
This summer, on August 11th, the Ragnows are expecting their first child in the heart of training camp.
