Tag: Obituary

Cowboys great, former Super Bowl champ Herb Adderley dies at 81

The Hall of Fame cornerback is best-known for his tenure as a Green Bay Packer, but he won the last of his 6 world titles in Dallas.

Herb Adderley, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and one of only four men to play on six world championship teams- including one as a Dallas Cowboy- has died.

Adderley came to Dallas in 1970 as part of a trade with the Green Bay Packers. The cornerback was a key component of the Cowboys’ legendary “Doomsday Defense” that helped define the franchise in that transformative decade. His play helped lead Dallas to Super Bowl V, where they lost to the Baltimore Colts, and then again to Super Bowl VI, in which the team beat the Miami Dolphins to claim their first league title. Adderley recorded nine interceptions over the course of those two seasons.

Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette writes:

“To watch [Adderley] up close, unforgettable,’ said Pat Toomay, a defensive lineman who was a Cowboys teammate for Adderley’s final two seasons in the NFL. “Never have I seen such grace. And he could just hang, hang, hang. It was like he was in slow motion. He’d go up and up and up, and hang and hang and hang, and then bat down the ball or pick it.”

But Adderley’s success in Dallas was largely overshadowed by his unhappiness with coach Tom Landry’s system, which mandated that players execute their assignments to the letter, even when they were counterintuitive to the player’s instincts or what actually transpired during action.

In his book The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America, author Joe Nick Patoski relays a story about Adderley receiving Landry’s ire after batting away a potential scoring pass during a 1972 game.

“Herb, you’ve got to play the defense like everybody else!”

“You mean I’m supposed to let a guy run by me and catch a touchdown pass?” Adderley protested.

“Yes, if that’s what your keys tell you to do!”

“No,” Adderley argued, “I don’t play that way.”

“Then you won’t play at all. Stay or leave; I don’t care.”

Landry benched the four-time All-Pro and traded him to the Rams after the season.

Outspoken against the often-poor treatment he received in the still-segregated South, Adderley all but disavowed his tenure with the Cowboys. He preferred instead to associate his career solely with the team that he won five championships with, the team that put him in their Hall of Fame in 1981.

“I’m the only man with a Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl ring who doesn’t wear it,” Adderley was quoted as saying later in life. “I’m a Green Bay Packer.”

He had been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame the year prior and is still considered one of the greatest cornerbacks to ever play the game.

Herb Adderley was 81 years old.

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May I Have Your Attention Please: RIP Sgt. Tim McCarthy

Say what you want, there is no sport around, not even America’s pastime of baseball, that carries tradition like college football. No matter what stadium you’re in on a given fall Saturday, every campus has them and every student and fan thinks that …

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Say what you want, there is no sport around, not even America’s pastime of baseball, that carries tradition like college football.

No matter what stadium you’re in on a given fall Saturday, every campus has them and every student and fan thinks that their unique ones are the best.

At Notre Dame one of those more bizarre traditions happened between the third and fourth quarters every home game from 1961-2015. And no, it wasn’t the playing of the 1812 Overture.

Starting in 1960 Indiana State Police Sgt. Tim McCarthy would get on the public address at Notre Dame Stadium and share a quick PSA about driving home safely.

The problem that year was that nobody really paid attention to what he was saying so when he returned to the job in 1961, he came with a pun.

“The automobile replaced the horse but the drivers should stay on the wagon!”

McCarthy capped his first safe-driving message with that in 1961 and the rest is history as his puns became a Notre Dame tradition in a very short amount of time.

Over the years he’d offer countless new puns, each more groan-worthy but laugh-inducing than the previous.

“Some drivers are like steel. They are no good when they lose their temper!”

“Weaving in and out of traffic can make you a basket case!”

And “Remember – never get Dopey or Grumpy when the roads become Snow White!”

Those were just a few of his literal hundreds used over the years.

I remember being at my first Notre Dame game in 2000 when the Irish hosted Stanford. Once the 1812 Overture ended the stadium got eerily quiet and I couldn’t figure out why 80,000 people were so interested in hearing a safe driving PSA.

And then McCarthy dropped a pun, the crowd erupted and every game I attended from then on I didn’t made a peep during his announcement.

McCarthy stopped doing his announcements during the 2015 season at the age of 84. His final announcement was made between the third and fourth quarters of the UMASS game that year and for it he went back to the automobile replacing the wagon pun that was his first 54 years earlier.

McCarthy wasn’t necessarily a recognizable face for the vast majority of the crowd likely wouldn’t recognize him if he was standing next to them, but for roughly 45 seconds each home Saturday, McCarthy was a star for over a half-century.

McCarthy passed away on Thursday at the age of 89.

Thanks for the memories, laughs and finding a way to help keep drives home even a little more safe.

“The trip home will be heavenly…if you drive like an angel!”

For more about McCarthy I recommend reading this piece by John Heisler from 2015.

 

Former Florida Gators receiver Aubrey Hill dies at 48

Aubrey Hill, a former receiver and assistant coach for Florida and several other schools, died on Sunday after a battle with cancer.

Aubrey Hill, a former receiver and assistant coach for the Florida Gators, died on Sunday after a battle with cancer. His passing was announced by Florida International University, where he has been the wide receivers coach since 2017.

Panthers head coach Butch Davis gave this statement on the death of Hill.

“It was a shock to learn of Aubrey’s passing tonight after his long battle with cancer,” Head Coach Butch Davis said. “Aubrey was loved and adored by so many who saw him not only as a coach, but as an amazing husband and father. We mourn his loss, but we will also hold on to the great memories he left behind and how honored we all were to be a part of his life. We pray for his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”

According to an article from The Athletic, Hill began an aggressive treatment plan for an unspecified form of cancer this spring after FIU’s spring practices were canceled as a result of COVID-19.

Hill played college football at Florida under coach Steve Spurrier from 1991-94, where he was a part of UF’s first three official SEC titles in 1991, 1993 and 1994. He finished his collegiate career with 86 receptions and 18 touchdowns, and he was a team captain his senior year.

After a year off, Hill began his coaching career at his alma mater, serving as a graduate assistant from 1996-98. His first season as an assistant in 1996, the Gators captured their first national championship.

He then landed a gig as the receivers coach at Duke, a post he held from 1999-03. After spending one year at Elon in the same role in 2004, he was taken on by Pittsburgh to coach receivers. He stayed there until 2008, before accepting the receiving coach position at Miami.

With the Hurricanes, he was promoted to recruiting coordinator in 2010. Though UM coach Randy Shannon was fired after the 2010 season, new coach Al Golden decided to retain Hill’s position on staff with the same responsibilities. However, shortly after Golden took the job, Hill accepted the receiving coach position under Will Muschamp at his alma mater.

Hill was a coach for the Gators during Muschamp’s first year in 2011, but just days before the 2012 season began, it was alleged that he was one of the Miami assistant coaches involved in a recruiting scandal that occurred from 2002-10. In response, he resigned from his position at UF. The following year, the NCAA served him a two-year show-cause penalty, essentially barring him from coaching in college football during that stretch.

In response, Hill moved down to the high school ranks, accepting a position at head coach of his alma mater Carol City High School in Miami. He led the Chiefs to a state championship as a coach in 2016.

Following the conclusion of his show-cause penalty, Hill was hired by former Miami coach Butch Davis at FIU in 2017, where he coached up until his death.

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