Former UHS, Georgia star McLee remembered
In the spring of 1973, former University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley gave his last scholarship to a kid he’d never heard of after a recommendation from Gene Steratore Sr., a college football official at the time. Over the next four years, Uniontown High School’s Kevin McLee not only became the face of Bulldogs’ football, but also re-wrote the team’s record book.
McLee was 52 when he died Saturday after suffering a stroke at his home in West Covina, Calif. A star for the Red Raiders in the early 1970s, McLee realized his potential under Dooley’s guidance.
“It’s kind of like a parent losing one of his children,” Dooley told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday. “I just saw Kevin in 2005. He was really upbeat, as he always was.”
After averaging nearly 100 yards per game as a junior at Uniontown in 1972, McLee suffered a knee injury during the second game of his senior year and missed the remainder of the season.
Unheralded, but still well respected, McLee was given a chance to prove his junior season was no fluke.
“Gene contacted Vince Dooley and asked him if he wanted to take a chance on getting a great running back,” said Reggie McLee, during an interview before the 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl. “Vince had a scholarship left and took a chance on Kevin and he was the starter by his sophomore year.”
Midway through his senior season in 1977, McLee surpassed 1942 Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich as Georgia’s all-time leading rusher. He finished with 2,581 career yards, a mark that was eventually surpassed by 1982 Heisman Trophy winner and NFL star Herschel Walker.
McLee still ranks in Georgia’s top five of several rushing categories, including most career rushes (562), most carries per game (17.6), yards per game (78.2) and most rushing yards in three seasons (2,581).
In 1976, McLee rushed for 1,058 yards, a mark that still stands as one of the top 10 seasons in Bulldogs’ history.
“Kevin had a lot of ability,” said former Herald-Standard sports editor Tod Trent. “He was quick, and a very good ball player.
“But at the time, we probably didn’t think he fit the mold of some of the backs who were going on to bigger colleges. He was sort of a late bloomer like Chuck Muncie. Muncie wasn’t great in high school, but blossomed when he got to college.”
McLee graduated from Uniontown in 1974 and was coached by current Upper St. Clair and former Uniontown head coach Jim Render.
“First of all, I’ve had a lot of good athletes,” Render said. “He’s perhaps the finest. Kevin is way up there among the great athletes I’ve coached. Secondly, he was a great spirit. He was very competitive, yet very ornery, and he loved people.
“I feel very bad. He was way too young to die. It’s one of those things where you wish you could talk to someone one more time. I was very close to all of his family, his mother and his brothers. Elaine (his mother) and I kept in touch a lot over the years.
“We lost another guy from that class, too. Darrell Yarborough died of cancer several years back. He and Kevin and Joe Love were very good football players. Now we’ve lost two of them.”
In 1975, McLee was named the Jacksonville Journal SEC Rookie of the Year. Down the stretch during the 1976 season, McLee rushed for 198 yards against Florida, and followed it with a 203-yard performance against Auburn, the best back-to-back rushing performance at Georgia at the time.
McLee was named a consensus All-SEC first teamer and was an Honorable Mention All-America selection in 1976 after helping the Bulldogs to the SEC title and a berth in the Sugar Bowl, opposite Pitt.
In 2005, McLee was inducted into the Georgia-Florida Hall of Fame.
“He was a great player and a great guy,” former Georgia coach and quarterback Ray Goff told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday. “He was physically strong, and he really thrived in our veer offense. He was a big reason why we won the SEC Championship.”
McLee is survived by two sons, Kevin “Boo” McLee and Devin McLee. Boo McLee starred at Uniontown as a running back before converting to linebacker and continuing his career at West Virginia University, where he helped lead the Mountaineers to back-to-back bowl victories, both of which occurred during the 2006 calendar year.
Following this year’s NFL Draft, Boo McLee was signed by the St. Louis Rams as a free agent and will begin training camp Friday, July 27.
Kevin McLee Sr.’s cousin Reggie also played at WVU, as did his brother William. Another brother, Brad, was a two-year lettermen at Michigan State.
Friends will be received Friday at the John Wesley A.M.E. Church in Uniontown from 2-4 and 6-9 p.m. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday with the Rev. Linda Arthur officiating.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the Muriel E. Lantz Funeral Home on East Main Street in Uniontown.