Twenty years later they remember it vividly. Where they were, how they heard, what it felt like to have their football coach–for many a mentor and father figure–die suddenly of a heart attack in the prime of life.
The memories of 48-year-old Wisconsin football coach Dave McClain’s death in April 1986 were stirred again Friday by the news Northwestern’s Randy Walker, 52, had died in strikingly similar fashion.
Jim Hilles, McClain’s defensive coordinator at Wisconsin who became the Badgers’ interim head coach, called McClain’s death “a cataclysmic event in my life. When he went down that day, we all did.”
McClain had a family history of heart disease but passed a physical in January 1986, Hilles recalled. He collapsed in the sauna following a workout the day after spring practice concluded three months later.
McClain was considered the savior of Badgers football, having restored a moribund program. He was coming off a poor season in which Wisconsin had gone 5-6, but he was optimistic about the coming season and a talented crop of upperclassmen that included several NFL prospects.
His wife, Judy, told Mike Lucas, a sports columnist for the Capital Times of Madison, Wis., she never had seen her husband so happy.
“He went through an epiphany with his players,” Lucas said. “He was more open and more demonstrative than I had ever seen.”
After riding a stationary bike on that January day, McClain donned a rubber jacket and entered the sauna, where he had a conversation with Steve Zimmerman, then an associate professor in the university’s medical school.
“I remember he told me he just had a party at a restaurant for his seniors,” Zimmerman said. “I went to shower off. I’m not sure how long I was gone, but when I came back there was obviously something wrong. He seemed to be snoring, barely breathing and slumped over.”
Zimmerman called for help, got McClain out of the sauna and attempted CPR. Two players who were walking by tried to revive him. An ambulance took the unconscious coach to the university’s medical center, where he was pronounced dead at 3:12 p.m.
“I was in my office,” Hilles recalled, “and (linebacker) Craig Raddatz ran in yelling, `Coach, coach, coach [McClain] is down.’ I said, `What do you mean, down?’ He said, `Coach McClain has had a heart attack.’
“By that time emergency services were there and they were trying to defibrillate him. But he was dead on the scene.”
Lasting legacy
McClain left his wife, a college-age son and two high school-age daughters. He also left a stunned state, a grieving community and a football team that had a difficult time picking up the pieces.
Many of his players heard the news on television or radio.
“I was in my apartment and saw it scroll across the bottom of the screen that he apparently had had a heart attack and details were pending,” former Badgers running back Joe Armentrout recalled. “The coaching staff did the best they could to corral us so they could tell us the news as a family. We were all quite close and loyal to coach McClain, and it was very traumatic. I still think about him all the time.
“Basically, we were all 17- to 21-year-olds who thought nothing is going to happen to us–we can run through walls and regroup physically, but not mentally and emotionally,” Armentrout said. “We were not prepared for something like that.”
Armentrout, who grew up in Elgin, still remembers the day he decided to attend Wisconsin.
“It was an early [recruiting] trip and there were 12 of us lined up and we each had 10-minute slots to talk to the coach,” he recalled. “I spent 45 minutes with him and he never cared that his schedule blew apart and he never once asked me about football. We talked about my brother and sister and parents. . . . From that moment, I knew this was the spot for me.”
Offensive lineman Paul Gruber, who had dealt with the loss of his father while he was being recruited, said the toughest job fell to Hilles, who quickly was named interim coach.
“It’s hard to put a coach into an interim role,” Gruber said. “But to follow someone so loved and with all the uncertainty . . .
“I’m sure in Northwestern’s case it is going to be similarly hard to replace their coach, especially at this time of the year.”
The Badgers had four months to prepare for the next season, but it was more difficult than they envisioned.
“It disrupted pretty much everything,” former quarterback Mike Howard said.
The Badgers lost two of their first three games and the pressure began building.
“We all wanted to do well for [Hilles], so you start pressing,” Howard said. “Not to mention the fact that you’re still dealing with the loss.”
Hilles has coached against Walker and called his death “a terrible tragedy.” Northwestern, he suspects, is in for a lengthy period of grieving.
“I thought we were through a major portion of that [by the start of the season]. We handled it in a certain fashion by putting Dave’s initials on the back of our helmets and dedicating the ’86 season to him,” Hilles said. “But the lingering effects went into the season and I’m not sure our players ever did get over it.”
Stress in aftermath
The ’86 team went 3-9 and Hilles was told he would not be retained.
“It was an extremely stressful time for me,” he said.
By season’s end Hilles barely could lift his head because of pain in his neck and back. Doctors eventually determined his condition was stress-related.
Walker, who dealt with the death of safety Rashidi Wheeler during conditioning drills in August 2001 and the ensuing lawsuit brought by Wheeler’s mother, was diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, in 2004.
“He had enough stress without the added things he has been going through,” Hilles said. “I don’t know for sure, but in my heart I know the stress he went through was a contributing factor [to his death]. . . . I know what I went through.”
McClain’s staff dispersed the next season. Hilles, 67, has had nine football jobs since leaving Wisconsin: three in college, two in Canada, one in NFL Europe, one in the defunct XFL, one with a national scouting service and his current job scouting for the Denver Broncos.
“Before Dave passed away I had never given a thought to being fired or being out of a coaching job,” Hilles said. “I thought if I did my job and kept my nose clean, I’d be coaching until I was 75. Then all of a sudden, wham, Dave died and the rug was pulled out from under us.”
When McClain succeeded John Jardine in 1978, the Badgers had had just one winning season in the previous 14.
After three years of rebuilding, McClain’s teams put together four straight winning seasons and went to bowl games after three of them.
His ’84 team produced 11 NFL draft picks, three first-rounders, and defeated Big Ten champion Ohio State that season.
Life in perspective
But, like Randy Walker, he never lost sight of what was important, say those who knew him. McClain’s father had died of a heart attack at 54. He also lost his mother and an older brother to heart disease and often reminded his players to tell their parents how much they loved them.
“You’re a kid, on top of the world, going to college to play football, loving life,” Howard said. “He did a good job of reminding us, `Hey, this is not forever. Don’t take anything for granted.’ He had good life lessons, motivational quotes, a lot of perspective.”
“He was sad about his family members dying,” former Badger Tim Jordan said. “There was this gloom of darkness over him, but he was also positive and upbeat and wanted to make sure that as men, we did what was right in life. He showed us that by his character.”
With time, Armentrout said, he has come to appreciate McClain’s influence even more.
“I don’t think any of us really understood how important he was as a person versus a coach until later years,” he said. “When you’re in the middle of it you lose perspective. It’s all about lifting, practicing, competing.
“But he made a huge impact in all of our lives and we know that now.”
———-
misaacson@tribune.com
