Former Uniontown star Boo McLee dies at 36
Kevin "Boo" McLee is shown during his basketball playing days at Uniontown. McLee, who led the Red Raiders football team to an undefeated regular season and played on Uniontown's WPIAL championship basketball team his senior year, has died at the age of 36.
Bill Amatucci, Jr.
Uniontown graduate Kevin “Boo” McLee roams his linebacker position during a West Virginia game against Marshall at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown on Sept. 2, 2006. The Mountaineers won, 42-10. McLee died on Sunday. He was 36. (Photo courtesy of WVU Athletics)
WVU Athletics
Uniontown graduate Kevin “Boo” McLee is shown during his playing days at West Virginia.
Pete Emerson
Uniontown graduate Kevin “Boo” McLee is shown playing linebacker for West Virginia, where he was a two-year starter and led the Mountaineers in tackles as a senior in 2006. McLee died on Sunday. He was 36. (Photo courtesy of WVU Athletics)
Uniontown graduate Kevin “Boo” McLee, a star football player for the Red Raiders and West Virginia, has died.
McLee was 36. The cause of death had yet to be released at press time.
His death on Sunday was being mourned on social media Sunday night and Monday.
McLee was a 6-foot-1, 230-pound senior when he propelled Uniontown to a perfect 9-0 regular, including a 26-0 win over Thomas Jefferson, and a Keystone Conference championship in 2001 under head coach John Fortugna. The Red Raiders earned the No. 1 seed in the WPIAL playoffs, but fell in the first round to an underrated Highlands team that went on to reach the semifinals.
McLee had one of the greatest two-way seasons in Red Raiders history with a Class AAA-best 1,637 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns, while also leading the team in tackles from his linebacker position that year.
Fortugna took the news hard Sunday night.
“It broke my heart because I watched him grow up,” an emotional Fortugna said. “He’d be at my house when he was a kid before he even played ball for us. He was a ball boy for us.
“It’s hard for me to talk about.”
McLee kept up the family tradition. He was the son of another Uniontown football great, Kevin “Age” McLee Sr., who was a three-sport star for the Red Raiders and went on to have great success in football at Georgia where he became the Bulldogs’ career rushing leader. The elder McLee died in 2007.
McLee, who had several uncles and other relatives that also were star athletes at Uniontown, was a three-sport star himself, adding basketball and track & field to his resume.
McLee was a key member of the Red Raiders’ 2002 WPIAL championship basketball team under head coach Dave Shuck. While he wasn’t a starter, he was part of Shuck’s seven-man rotation for a team that was ranked No. 1 in the state for a good portion of the season and fell to Harrisburg in the PIAA final.
But football was where McLee had the biggest impact.
“He’s probably one of the best athletes and the hardest working kid I’ve ever coached,” Fortugna said. “And, he did everything right when he was here. He was our tailback and had over 1,600 yards rushing. We ran that three-back offense and gave him the ball a lot.”
McLee was a monster on the other side of the ball, as well.
“He led the team in tackles at inside linebacker and made all-state that year,” Fortugna pointed out. “What else could you ask for? And, he deserved to make it because he worked so hard. He wasn’t a kid that was a natural. He worked.
“He used to get me up in the morning before I went to the high school in the summer time. Just before the season started we had weight-lifting and he’d get me to go down there two hours before the kids had to report at 9 o’clock. At 7 o’clock, me and him were down on the field working out.
“He had that determination. He wanted to get it done. He was both a lead-by-example guy and a vocal leader.”
McLee was successfully recruited by WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez, who put him at linebacker where he excelled after being red-shirted his first year. McLee saw significant playing time off the bench as a sophomore and had a team-high eight tackles in the Gator Bowl.
McLee, whose playing weight was up to 255 in college, jumped into the starting lineup his junior and senior years. He was second on the Mountaineers in tackles with 78 as a junior and led the team with 79 as a senior, including 5.5 tackles for losses, and also had one interception.
“He could’ve went other places (Pitt and Virginia showed interested), but he chose WVU and they treated him very well,” Fortugna said. “They came after him and really wanted him and he knew that. He did a great job for them, too.”
McLee earned All-Big East, ESPN.com All-Conference and ALL-ECAC honors while playing at WVU.
After college, McLee was signed as a free agent by the St. Louis Rams, but left camp shortly after arriving in 2007. He also had a brief stint with the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL in 2008 and played under coach Shawn Liotta for the Wheeling Wildcats of the Continental Indoor Football League in 2009.
McLee was regarded as a friendly, hard-working player, well-liked by his teammates, but ran afoul of the law several times after leaving WVU and was arrested on charges of robbery in 2016 and pleaded guilty to five counts in 2019.
“When he was at West Virginia University we had a lot of contact back and forth, but then when he got out of school we didn’t have much contact after that,” Fortugna said. “We did some things to try to help him out. I talked to his aunt a couple times and they said he was doing well.”
McLee was a very likable student in high school, according to many, including Uniontown graduate Jonathan Guth.
“Boo was not only a great football player, but also someone the younger kids could look up to,” said Guth, a former Red Raiders wrestler and cross country runner. “He always made it a point to say hi to me when I would see him in the halls and at the stadium. He didn’t have to do that. I was just a lowly sophomore and he was a Division I recruit.
“But he did jokingly tell me to take my Pitt hat off once he signed at WVU,” Guth added with a laugh.
“He will be missed.”
McLee, who was born on Nov. 24, 1983, often credited his paternal grandmother, the late Elaine Murray, for taking care of him while he was growing up in Uniontown. Murray died in 2004.
McLee was single.
“It’s still hard to believe,” Fortugna said. “My wife knew him, too, and she’s upset as well.
“He was like the son I never had.”