Anthony Eugene McGee (born January 18, 1949) is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

player who played fourteen seasons in the

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(NFL), including two

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s with the

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. After being dismissed from the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

football team as part of the Black 14 in

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

, McGee continued his

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

career at

Bishop College Bishop College was a historically black college, founded in Marshall, Texas, United States, in 1881 by the Baptist Home Mission Society. It was intended to serve students in east Texas, where the majority of the black population lived at the t ...

and was selected in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

of the

1971 NFL Draft The 1971 National Football League draft was held January 28–29, 1971, at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City, New York. The Boston Patriots, who did not officially change their name to New England Patriots until after the draft, used th ...

by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

College career

Born and raised in

Battle Creek, Michigan Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, Michigan, Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle C ...

, McGee played college football at the

in Laramie. In his junior season was off to a ranked #16 in the and appeared headed for a fourth straight conference title. But on Friday, October 17, the day before the home game against

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

, McGee and thirteen other African American players went to head coach office to discuss how they might participate in a protest called by the UW Black Students Alliance against

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

tenet which prohibited black men from becoming

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in p ...

. As soon as Eaton saw them wearing black arm bands, he took them into the Memorial Fieldhouse bleachers and immediately informed them they were all off the team because they violated the coach's rule against participating The rule was withdrawn the next week, but the players were not reinstated. McGee and five others were starters, and after this, the Wyoming football program was not the same. Although the suddenly all-white Cowboys defeated BYU and

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

to improve to they lost their four road games in November. In

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

, the Cowboys went and Eaton "retired" from coaching, reassigned to assistant Wyoming posted only one winning season in the 1970s, Three of the Black 14 underclassmen returned to the team but McGee finished his college career in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. He was projected to be a first round pick in the

, but fell to the

(64th overall) because word passed around that he was a troublemaker due to his dismissal from Wyoming and his involvement

Professional career

McGee played 14 years as a defensive lineman in the NFL with the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

and

Known as "Mac the Sack" because of his ability to get to the quarterback, McGee had a career total of 106.5 sacks. A durable defensive lineman, McGee played in 203 games, missing only one game during his entire NFL career. He was a nominee for the

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...

in . While with the Redskins, McGee played in Super Bowls

XVII 17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. It is a prime number. Seventeen is the sum of the first four prime numbers. In mathematics 17 is the seventh prime number, which makes seventeen the fourth super-prime, as ...

(1983) and XVIII (1984), winning the former.

TV career

McGee is the founder and host of the longest running minority-owned sports talk show in the Washington, D.C. region. His "Pro Football Plus" television show is celebrating twenty-nine seasons of broadcasting excellence.

References

External links

* * Pro Football Plus - http://www.redmagplus.com/index.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:McGee, Tony 1949 births Living people Sportspeople from Battle Creek, Michigan American football defensive ends Bishop Tigers football players Chicago Bears players New England Patriots players Players of American football from Michigan Washington Redskins players Wyoming Cowboys football players