Bob McKay

Robert Charles McKay was born on 27 December 1947 in Seminole, Texas, and grew up in Crane, the seat of a Permian Basin county shaped by oil, cattle, and long distances from anywhere. Crane High School played Class AA football; McKay became its pride as a tall, rangy lineman.

In his senior year he was called to the coach's office and met Texas assistant Mike Campbell, who had driven more than six hours from Austin to recruit him. Coach Darrell Royal later visited in person. McKay later recalled being as scared of Campbell as of a man with a loaded shotgun, answering mostly "yes sir" and "no sir," then accepting Royal's scholarship when told that if he did not want it, Texas had someone else who would. He enrolled at the University of Texas and began the climb from a 220-pound West Texas prospect to a championship offensive tackle.

McKay's college peak came in 1968 and 1969 as Royal's Wishbone triple option took hold. Texas went 9-1-1 in 1968, won the Southwest Conference, beat Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl, and finished No. 3. In 1969 the Longhorns went 11-0, led the FBS in rushing and scoring, defeated Arkansas in the Game of the Century, and beat Notre Dame 21-17 in the 1970 Cotton Bowl to claim the national championship. With McKay starting, Texas was 20-1-1 across those two seasons. He was a consensus first-team All-American and All-SWC pick in 1969 and played in the Coaches All-America Game and Hula Bowl.

The Browns drafted him 21st overall in 1970. He played six seasons in Cleveland and three with the Patriots (1976-78), totaling about 105 games and 71 starts, with playoff appearances for both clubs. After 1978 he left the game for commercial sales and community work in Austin.

McKay married Donna, whom Texas Athletics and the NFF called his beloved wife and anchor of 50 years. They raised two children, Jill (Scott) and Josh (Katie), and had eight grandchildren. Brothers Don (Kathy) and Mike survived him; parents Doris and Charles McKay predeceased him.

Away from football he valued the dorm-forged bonds of the late-1960s Longhorns. Teammates still hunted and fished together decades later. James Street nicknamed him "Big 'Un"; after Street's death in 2013, son Huston Street said his father would tell Bob McKay stories for hours and used McKay as an example of what hard work could achieve. McKay lived in Austin after his NFL years and stayed connected to Texas Athletics events, including a 2017 on-field recognition of his College Football Hall of Fame induction.

McKay's most widely retold on-field incident came on 5 October 1975, when the Browns hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers. During a skirmish, Steelers defensive tackle "Mean" Joe Greene kicked McKay in the groin. Browns center Tom DeLeone and tight end Gary Parris wrestled Greene down; Wikipedia and contemporary rivalry accounts say McKay then threw several punches before referees restored order. Greene and DeLeone were ejected in standard retellings of the brawl.

The fight became part of Browns-Steelers lore and is sometimes exaggerated in later retellings. McKay continued his NFL career after 1975, including three seasons with New England through 1978. The episode sits beside an otherwise reputation for cooperative leadership rather than intimidation, as Ted Koy and Steve Hatchell later emphasized.

Bob McKay died on Thursday, 10 September 2026, in Austin, Texas. He was 78. The University of Texas Athletics department and the National Football Foundation announced his death the same day. No cause of death was made public in those statements or in major contemporaneous obituaries such as Newsweek.

Texas Athletics said details of a celebration of life would be released later. He was survived by Donna; children Jill and Josh and their spouses; eight grandchildren; and brothers Don and Mike. NFF President and CEO Steve Hatchell said nothing meant more to McKay than his family and called him a gentle giant and a good friend.

McKay is remembered as the first College Football Hall of Fame inductee from Texas's 1969 national championship team and as a living symbol of the Wishbone's physical dominance. His line helped produce one of college football's great undefeated seasons and a 30-game winning streak that stretched from 1968 into 1970. At Texas he joined the Athletics Hall of Honor (1990); statewide voters put him in the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame (2012); the NFF enshrined him in 2017.

Beyond plaques, teammates and coaches stressed character: a lineman who led by doing his job, a recruit who never forgot Crane, and a husband and father whose private life outranked public honors. Wishbone history, the Game of the Century, and the 1970 Cotton Bowl keep his name in Longhorn memory.

• Consensus first-team All-American (1969)
• First-team All-Southwest Conference (1969)
• Member of Texas's 1969 national championship team; 1968 and 1969 SWC champions
• Coaches All-America Game and Hula Bowl (after 1969 season)
• NFL first-round draft pick, 21st overall (Cleveland Browns, 1970)
• Texas Athletics Hall of Honor (1990)
• Texas High School Football Hall of Fame (2012)
• National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame (2017)