Emergency crews were called to Max McGee's residence at approximately 5:20 p.m. Saturday after a report that a man had fallen off his roof and was unconscious.
Life-saving measures were performed on McGee, but emergency personnel were unable to revive him and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Born William "Max" McGee on July 16, 1932, in Saxton City, Nev., he played a total of 12 seasons for the Packers. After playing high school football in White Oak, Texas, and then collegiately at Tulane University, the Packers selected McGee in the fifth round of the 1954 NFL draft.
After catching 36 passes, including nine touchdowns, as a rookie, McGee spent the next two years as a pilot in the Air Force.
Despite his service to his country, Mr. McGee ended his career with 345 receptions for 6,346 yards and an 18.4-yard average, the second highest per-catch average in team history. He remains the 10th-highest scorer with 306 points on 51 touchdowns.
Sports writer Bud Lea, who has covered the Packers for 53 years, said Saturday night, "There'll never be another Max McGee; just one of the guys that stands out, out of all the guys I've covered."
"He was the most uncomplicated athlete I ever covered in my whole career," Lea said. "Always approachable . . . What he said is what he meant."
Lea, who covered the team for many years for the Milwaukee Sentinel and now covers them for Packer Plus, also said McGee liked a good time and that the public adored him.
"He stands out as one guy that I will never forget," Lea said.
Lee Remmel, the Packers' team historian, called McGee "one of the most colorful players in our history, as well as one of the more talented."
McGee was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1975, alongside former teammates and close friends - some of whom were known to enjoy a good time together away from the field - Paul Hornung, Jerry Kramer and Fred "Fuzzy" Thurston.
Also inducted that year was Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi, who got a quick introduction to the always colorful McGee early in Lombardi's tenure.
Upset over a loss, Lombardi decided to start with the fundamentals - by introducing a football.
From the back of the room, McGee replied, "Uh, Coach, could you slow down a little. You're going too fast for us."
Even an angry Lombardi was forced to laugh. And McGee might have been the only player who could have gotten away with that.
By the time Super Bowl I was played on Jan. 15, 1967, McGee was a reserve who had caught just four passes all season. Figuring he wouldn't see much playing time behind starter Boyd Dowler, McGee had one of his infamous nights out on the town in Los Angeles.
McGee left the team hotel after the 11 p.m. bed-check by assistant coach Dave "Hawg" Hanner.
McGee tried to entice Hornung, his roommate, to join him and two American Airlines stewardesses at a local bar. Hornung declined, as he was getting married in three days.
"Neither of us figured to play in the game," McGee recounted in Lea's book, "Magnificent Seven." "Then Hornung backed out. . . . the fine was something like $15,000 if you got caught breaking curfew the night before the game. Hell, that's what we were going to get if we won the game. You know, money didn't mean much to me."
McGee returned to his room just in time for the Packers' team breakfast and then caught an hour's nap before boarding the bus to the Los Angeles Coliseum.
The 34-year-old veteran was seated on the bench next to Hornung, discussing the upcoming wedding and bachelor party, when Lombardi ordered him into the game after Dowler was injured on the second play of the game. McGee couldn't find his helmet.
"I forgot to bring it out, and I played the first series with somebody else's helmet," McGee said in the book. "I told Dad Braisher (equipment manager) to go find my helmet, and he found it."
McGee would go on to produce one of the greatest performances in Super Bowl history: seven catches for 138 yards and two touchdowns as Green Bay beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.
In a 2002 interview, McGee said he remained proud of his playing career.
"I'm glad I got to play when I did," McGee said. "I don't even like football anymore because every time a guy gets a hand in on a tackle, he's doing a back-flip or pounding his chest.
"I played at a great time with some great guys. And even though the money wasn't close to what it's like today, we had a great time."
McGee had a second career in the NFL for two decades. In 1979, with Bart Starr as head coach, McGee teamed up with Jim Irvin as the radio play-by-play team for the Packer Radio Network.
Broadcast on stations across the state, McGee was known for his straightforward and candid comments as well as his unique insight to the game. Just before Green Bay's Reggie White sacked New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe for the third time in Super Bowl XXXI, and it was clear the Packers would win their first Super Bowl in 29 years, McGee said: "I tell you one thing, there's nothing better than being the World's Champion."
McGee retired from the radio booth at the end of the 1998 season.
"After being here for so many years and being with the Packers organization since 1954, some way or another I've been involved for so long," McGee said in announcing his retirement.
McGee was also a successful businessman after his playing days. A year after he retired, he became the co-founder of the Mexican chain restaurant Chi Chi's, during the late 1970s and '80s. According to an article in Time magazine in 1982, McGee owned "some 150,000 Chi-Chi's shares, worth about $4 million, and is a director of the company." By 1998 McGee had sold his interests in the chain. Time reported in 2005 that McGee's worth "now is measured in the tens of millions of dollars."
Chi Chi's folded in 2004.
McGee, who in 1999 founded the Max McGee National Research Center for Juvenile Diabetes at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, is survived by his wife, Denise, two sons and numerous grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
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I was sitting watching the run up to the Steeler/Bronco game tonight when I saw the news crawl at the bottom of the screen announcing the tragic accident that ended Max McGee's life at age 75.
Max was always a favorite of mine back in the "glory years" of Lombardi's Packers and who can forget the spectacular behind the back catch he made on a touchdown against the Kansas City Chiefs in the first Superbowl?
At that time there weren't too many that knew how incredibly hung over he was that day, having partied all night in Los Angeles, thinking that his number wouldn't be called as he was backing Boyd Dowler.
I am currently reading Paul Hornung's "Lombardi and Me" and here's what the Golden Boy has to say about Max:
" Max and I hit it off right away, probably because we recognized quickly that we were very much alike. He was more than my teammate; he was my partner in crime, my running buddy, my best playmate.
I've never met anybody who liked to have a good time more than Max. I like to say that Max went to Tulane and majored in Bourbon Street. But no matter what he had done the night before, Max was always ready on Sunday afternoon. When he came off the bench to become MVP in Superbowl I, he was hung over. But Lombardi loved him as much as he did me. I think he knew we were having more fun than he was and it pissed him off.
Max was diagnosed with Alzheimer's a few years ago, but he started taking medication and seems to be hanging in there just fine."
When he became the "color" man to Jim Irwin on Packer game radio broadcasts, I think everybody in the state would turn the TV announcers off and the radio up. They were that good together.
I was really saddened when they retired in 1998. It really hasn't been the same since. And tonight I am even more saddened to find out that he is gone.
Max McGee is so much a part of my personal relationship with the Green Bay Packers, both as a player in the first Superbowl, and as an announcer in Superbowl XXXI.
Rest in peace to one of the greats.
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