Honoring the memory of Max McGee

By Os Davis | Monday, October 22, 2007 | ( 0 )

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By now, you've surely heard of the Green Bay Packers' Max McGee's passing over the weekend. A former member of Vince Lombardi's "Title Town" teams of the 1960s, McGee is certainly best known for his performance in Super Bowl I.

In that inaugural game, McGee had a hangover from an all-nighter at Hollywood's amazing Whiskey A Go Go - Do you realize the Whiskey has hosted as performers or house band Blondie, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Alice Cooper, Cream, The Doors, Guns N' Roses, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, The Melvins, Motley Crue, Mudhoney, Nirvana, Oasis, The Police, The Ramones, Roxy Music, Sam & Dave (on one occasion joined by Jimi Hendrix!), Soundgarden, Talking Heads, The Turtles, Van Halen, The Who, X, XTC and Frank Zappa among others? One wonders who was on stage that Super Bowl eve - and famously didn't expect to play at all. However, Bart Starr's No. 2 target in 1967, Boyd Dowler, went down in the first quarter.

The rest, as they say, is history. And stats: seven catches for 138 yards and two TDs plus the MVP nod in the Super Bowl. For his career McGee snagged 345 passes for 6,346 yards to go with 50 TD receptions and an impressive 18.4 yards per catch spread over 12 years. Always fun to watch and funny to quote, McGee was a true gem from an era when professional athletes partying properly was more jokingly admired (and, admittedly, less dangerous). When fun-loving guys were fun-loving guys, if you will.

RealFootball365.com hereby suggests a few ways in paying simple tribute to a classic wide receiver and all-time great guy.

Check out the Super Bowl I highlight clip. Though the one-minute NFL Films clip has mysteriously disappeared from SuperBowl.com, the official Web site still has it posted here. McGee's first-quarter TD, in which he's reportedly wearing someone else's helmet and the one-hand grab was an attempt to prevent the interception, is there. Also see toward the end of the video McGee's second TD, bubblier than champagne and perhaps more bobbled than his date to the Whiskey.

Slip his most famous quote into conversation. Said quote: "When it's third and 10, you can take the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time." The line can of course be adapted to other ways of life: "When we're in a pinch to close the quarter..." or "When we're coming up against publishing deadline..."

If you ask this quote enthusiast, though, the "milk drinkers" line doesn't even make the list of McGee's own top three, which goes:

3. "Ladies, it's been a festival, as always. You are all too beautiful for words. I only hope that I more than made up for the disappointment of Paul Hornung not being here." (On his departure from the Whiskey a Go Go.)

2. "Not so fast, not so fast." (Reportedly McGee's devastating comeback to Vince Lombardi's cutting opening line in his introductory talk to the team in 1959: "Gentlemen, this is a football.")

1. The closing line from this exchange, which occurred right after Super Bowl I and went something like the following according to Jerry Kramer's Lombardi: Winning is the Only Thing.

Lombardi: Nice game.

McGee: Most any end could've done the same thing.

Lombardi: You're right.

McGee: Well, you sure took the edge off that, you S.O.B.

Damn, to write dialogue like that ...

Have the man's drink of choice - whiskey - in a memorial toast. Perhaps on Sunday while watching the Pack. Just drink responsibly. Well, responsibly enough to catch seven passes from Bart Starr while displaying Wildean wit to the ladies and gents. Perhaps some Loch Lomond...?

Give to his charity, the Max McGee National Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. McGee's brother and one of his sons were sufferers of the illness, inspiring McGee to create the foundation in 1999. Every little bit helps, as they say, and I'm sure the Wild One himself would have appreciated the gesture.

RealFootball365.com: Saluting the memory of Max McGee (1932-2007).

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	About Os Davis Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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