One of the joys in life is meeting wonderful people. I continue to be blessed by association with smart, generous, thoughtful and witty human beings who add to life's purpose and make people happier by the simple act of being present.
Around the time that my wife Mary was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, a group of Inland Steel engineers, and executives with whom I became aquainted through my fund-raising work for Bishop Noll Institute, took great pains to help me maintain through the grief. One of this circle of well-educated and generous gents was an executive for Calumet Refractory which made bricks used in steel plants.
Mike McGill looks about ten years younger than his age and presents himself like an English teacher or a bookish scholar. I spent many hours talking literature and history and politics with Mike McGill. Mike had been an NFL Pro, but never talked a down of football. He was like the many heroes who fought at Khe Sanh, Bastogne and the Chosen Reservoir. Mike McGill, like the great newspaperman Ray Coffey, was there and did not need to advertise the fact.
Mike McGill would rather discuss Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson's Shenandoah Campaign of 1862, than the interceptions he made for Purple People Eaters of the Joe Kapp -Era Minnesota Vikings - which numbered MN Justice Allan Page and Jim Marshall among the greats. Nevertheless, Mike McGill would never ask "Do You Know Who I am?" Mike McGill waits in the long lines at Strack and Van Til grocery market until the lady with seven kids -and half of them crying -gets taken care of.
Mike McGill is devoted to his family, his church and his friends. Unlike too many of the Notre Dame Alumni, Mike McGill is a never 'ring knocker' - he is a gentleman and deeply read scholar.
I am proud to spend time with such a man.
Mike McGill
Born November 21, 1946 in Hammond, Indiana.
Playing career
St. Louis CardinalsLinebacker
1972 1971
Minnesota VikingsLinebacker
1970 1969 1968
Notre Dame Football
1967 1966 1965
Mike with his parents on the Notre Dame campus, Nov. 4, 1967.
Photo Courtesy of the Calumet Regional Archives, IUN, Gary
Mike McGill attended Bishop Noll High School and graduated in 1964. He was an all-star athlete in football, basketball and baseball at Noll and then went on to play football at Notre Dame from 1965-1967. He was an All-American in 1967 and was on the 1968 College All-Star team. McGill played six years in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings and St. Louis Cardinals. He also played in Super Bowl IV
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/McGiMi20.htm
