172: max mcgee

MINNEAPOLIS - Max McGee, the unexpected hero of the first Super Bowl and a long-time challenge for Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, died Saturday after falling from the roof of his home, police confirmed. He was 75.

Police were called to the former Green Bay receiver's Deephaven home around 5:20 p.m., Sgt. Chris Whiteside said. Efforts to resuscitate McGee were unsuccessful.

McGee was blowing leaves off the roof when he fell, according to news reports. A phone message left at a number listed for an M. McGee wasn't immediately returned.

"I just lost my best friend," former teammate Paul Hornung told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "(His wife) Denise was away from the house. She'd warned him not to get up there. He shouldn't have been up there. He knew better than that."

Inserted into Packers' lineup when Boyd Dowler was sidelined by a shoulder injury, McGee went on to catch the first touchdown pass in Super Bowl history in Green Bay's 35-10 victory over Kansas City in January 1967. Still hung over from a night on the town, McGee caught seven passes for 138 yards and two TDs.

"Now he'll be the answer to one of the great trivia questions: Who scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history?" Hornung said. "Vince knew he could count on him. ... He was a great athlete. He could do anything with his hands."

Though an admirer of Lombardi, McGee time and again pushed the tough-as-nails coach to the breaking point.

McGee - remembered for saying: "When it's third-and-10, you can take the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time." - put Lombardi to the ultimate test prior to the first Super Bowl.

McGee had caught only four passes for 91 yards during the 1966 regular season and, not expecting to play against the Chiefs, violated the team's curfew and spent the night before the game partying.

Reportedly, the next morning he told Dowler: "I hope you don't get hurt. I'm not in very good shape."

Dowler went down with a separated shoulder on the Packers' second drive, and McGee had to borrow a helmet because he left his in the locker room. A few plays later, McGee made a one-handed reception of a pass from Bart Starr and ran 37 yards to score.

"He had a delightful sense of humour and had a knack for coming up with big plays when you least expected it to happen," Packers historian Lee Remmel said. "He had a great sense of timing."

Remmel said McGee once teased Lombardi when the coach showed the team a football on their first meeting and said, "Gentlemen, this is a football."

"McGee said, 'Not so fast, not so fast,"' Remmel said. "That gives you an index to the kind of humour that he served up regularly."

McGee was a running back at Tulane and the top kick returner in U.S. college football in 1953.

Selected by the Packers in the fifth round of the 1954 draft, McGee spent two years in the Air Force as a pilot following his rookie year before returning in 1957 to play 11 more seasons. He finished his career with 345 receptions for 6,346 yards - an 18.4-yard average - and scored 51 touchdowns and 306 points.

After retiring from football, he became a major partner in developing the popular Chi-Chi's chain of Mexican restaurants. In 1979, he became an announcer for the Packer Radio Network with Jim Irwin until retiring in 1998.

McGee and wife Denise founded the Max McGee National Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in 1999.

According to the centre's Web site, his brother fought diabetes in his lifetime, and Max and Denise's youngest son, Dallas, lives with the disease.

McGee is survived by his wife, four children and several grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were pending. Former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Max McGee died after falling from the roof of his suburban Minneapolis home.

McGee, who scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history, was 75.

According to local news reports, McGee was blowing leaves off the roof when the accident happened.

Former teammate Paul Hornung told the St. Paul Pioneer Press, "I just lost my best friend." He said McGee's wife was away from the house and had warned him not to get up there.

McGee played on Green Bay's 1967 and '68 Super Bowl championship teams. He scored the first touchdown in a Super Bowl on a pass from Bart Starr in the Packers' 35-10 win over Kansas City. MINNEAPOLIS - Green Bay Packer legend Max McGee died Saturday following an accident at his home in the Minneapolis suburb of Deephaven. He was 75 years old.

Police were called to the home around 5:20 p.m. on a report of an unconscious man who had fallen off the roof. Emergency crews arrived and performed CPR on McGee but their efforts were not successful and he was pronounced dead.

According to KARE-TV, family members said McGee was blowing leaves off the roof when the accident happened.

"I just lost my best friend," former teammate Paul Hornung told the St. Paul Pioneer Press from his home in Louisville, Ky. "(His wife) Denise was away from the house, she'd warned him not to get up there. He shouldn't have been up there. He knew better than that."

McGee played on Green Bay's 1967 and 1968 Super Bowl championship teams, scoring the first touchdown in on a pass from Bart Starr in the Packers' 35-10 victory over Kansas City in the inaugural game.

After catching only four passes all season before the Super Bowl, he caught seven passes for 138 yards -- a record that stood for 10 years.

He played for the Packers from 1954 to 1967, with an interruption for military service, helping them win five NFL championships.

After his wide receiver days were over, McGee went on to serve as the voice of the Pack on the Packers radio network, heard on 620 WTMJ. McGee and partner Jim Irwin retired from the radio booth after the 1998 season.

McGee was also a successful restaurateur and entrepreneur. He was a major partner in developing the Chi Chi's chain of Mexican restaurants in the late 1970s and '80s.

In 1999, McGee founded the Max McGee National Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin to raise money for diabetes research. McGee's son has struggled with the disease for many years.

McGee is survived by his wife, four children and several grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were pending. Every Cleveland fan's biggest fear -- a Fenway-inspired revival for the Red Sox -- came true Saturday night. Drew's first-inning grand slam put the Indians in a huge hole, and Curt Schilling took care of the rest to give Boston a 12-2 victory in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series before 37,163 revelers at Fenway Park.

The Ohio State Buckeyes built a comfortable lead and then gave up two touchdowns off turnovers late in the third quarter -- and almost lost another fumble deep in their own territory on the next play -- but slipped past Michigan State 24-17 on Saturday.

The USC Trojans (No. 14 BCS, No. 13 AP), hampered by injuries, struggled three straight games against Pac-10 opponents, including a stunning loss to Stanford. They got back some of their injured players Saturday against the Fighting Irish and looked like the team that began the season ranked No. 1, beating Notre Dame 38-0.

With a second to spare, Demetrius Byrd hauled in Matt Flynn's 22-yard fade to the back of the end zone, lifting fifth-ranked LSU to a 30-24 victory over No. 18 Auburn on Saturday night.

The UCLA Bruins (5-2, 4-0) parlayed Kahlil Bell's 142 yards rushing, an opportunistic defense and a steady performance by quarterback Patrick Cowan in to a 30-21 win over California (No. 12 BCS, No. 10 AP) 30-21 on Saturday.

Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators showed those upstarts from Kentucky they're still the team to beat in the SEC East. Tebow threw for 256 yards and a career-high four touchdown passes, and Florida (No. 15 BCS, No. 14 AP) rebounded from back-to-back losses with a 45-37 victory over Kentucky (No. 7 BCS, No. 8 AP) on Saturday.

Paul Byrd, who pitched the Cleveland Indians to the brink of the World Series with a victory in Game 4 of the ALCS on Tuesday, bought nearly $25,000 worth of human growth hormone and syringes, according to a published report. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday that Byrd's purchase was from the Florida anti-aging clinic that was the focus of law enforcement for illegally distributing performance-enhancing drugs, according to business records.

Max McGee, the unexpected hero of the first Super Bowl and a longtime challenge for Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, died Saturday after falling from the roof of his home, police confirmed. He was 75. Police were called to the former Green Bay receiver's Deephaven home around 5:20 p.m., Sgt. Chris Whiteside said. Efforts to resuscitate McGee were unsuccessful. McGee was blowing leaves off the roof when he fell, according to news reports.

In what will be viewed as a remarkable comeback if he only steps foot on the field Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs activated tailback Priest Holmes on Saturday for their game against the Oakland Raiders.

Agent Scott Boras said the instability surrounding Joe Torre's departure from the New York Yankees could impact whether his client Alex Rodriguez returns to New York or joins another team. Speaking in an interview with CNNMoney.com, Boras said the big void in the Yankees' dugout could hinder the team's interest in offering his client a lavish extension before his opt-out date of Nov. 10.

Needing only to finish in 12th place or better, Formula One-bound Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais won Sunday's Lexmark Indy 300 to clinch his fourth straight Champ Car drivers' title.

It wasn't the Jayhawks' high-powered offense that came to the rescue, but the defense. Kansas (No. 13 BCS, No. 15 AP) forced three turnovers and stopped Colorado on downs twice in the fourth quarter, escaping Folsom Field with a 19-14 victory on Saturday -- its first win in Boulder since 1995.

With neurological experts prescribing a prolonged period of rest, the Miami Dolphins on Saturday placed quarterback Trent Green on injured reserve, ending his 2007 season, despite his hopes that he would return to the field this year. Green, 37, suffered a Grade 3 concussion in the team's Oct. 7 game at Houston when he blocked Texans' defensive tackle Travis Johnson, and was accidentally kneed in the head. It marked the second straight season in which Green sustained a serious head injury.

John Parker Wilson passed for a career-high 363 yards and three touchdowns, DJ Hall had a school-record 13 catches for 185 yards and Alabama rolled to a 41-17 victory over No. 20 Tennessee on Saturday.

In the latest indication that Michael Vick won't be returning to the Atlanta Falcons, the suspended quarterback has listed his suburban home here for sale, with a price tag of $4.5 million. MINNEAPOLIS - Max McGee, the unexpected hero of the first Super Bowl and a long-time challenge for Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, died Saturday after falling from the roof of his home, police confirmed. He was 75.