Korcek's Corner: Gill, one of NIU's top 50 players, dead at 58

To some, former Northern Illinois University defensive tackle Max “Buppy” Gill might have been the Larry English or Sutton Smith of his era. To his students and their parents, his colleagues in northwest Indiana, Gill was a passionate, educational “Pied Piper.”

Gill, a former principal of Portage High School in Indiana, died Friday, only two weeks shy of his 59th birthday. The cause of death was ALS. Funeral arrangements are pending.

“It’s extremely sad,” ex-NIU offensive guard Paul Hudetz said, “to lose two great Huskie defensive linemen to ALS.”

The reference was to former NIU team quad-captain and defensive end Tim Dacy (1974-76), who died earlier this year.

“The kids just flocked around him,” Portage High Principal Mike Stills told the Northwest Indiana Times.

“He’ll be missed by students and staff alike,” said Stills, who replaced Gill when he left the job for medical reasons last January. “Everybody loved him.”

At Northern Illinois, Gill created quite a legacy. A four-year letter-winner (1979-82), the curly-haired No. 67 would make team quad-captain and season MVP, First-Team All-Mid-American Conference, and Honorable Mention Associated Press All-America as a senior on an up-and-coming 5-5 team.

Maybe the ultimate honor that season was being the first NIU player nominated for the prestigious Vern Smith Award (now the Jefferson Trophy), symbolic of the MAC’s most outstanding player.

Gill led the Huskies in tackles for loss three consecutive years (18 for 90 yards in losses in 1980, 10 for 35 yards in 1981, and 11 for 36 yards in 1982). The one-time NIU career tackle for loss leader (39 for 161 yards) still ranks among the program’s top 10 – No. 9 in that category – behind such all-time greats as English and Smith.  No. 67 also shared the single-game tackle for loss record (five twice).

It was a different time. Once Gill got to campus, Northern Illinois had been a major college for only a decade. High-profile entered the local conversation in 1983. NIU’s first ESPN appearance would occur with the California Bowl. There were no 14-game seasons, no annual bowl trips, no Heisman candidates.

Still, program media stakeholders remembered. Gill was voted to the All-Time Huskie Stadium Team in 1995, the NIU football Centennial All-Century squad in 1999 and among the Huskie Stadium Top 50 Players in 2015.

Regrettably, the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame never called his name.

After an All-State senior year at Merrillville High School in Indiana, Gill was recruited as a defensive tackle but moved to offensive guard, where the 6-foot-2, 240-pounder earned eight starts as a true freshman for NIU head coach Pat Culpepper in 1979. The next season, new Huskie coach Bill Mallory moved Gill back to defense.

“We inherited Buppy,” recalled Joe Novak, NIU’s defensive coordinator in 1980. “Tough kid, quick, active, as fine as a defensive player as we had. [Opponents] had to scheme, game-plan for him. [He was a] talented young man.”

Heckuva move, Coach Mallory. In Gill’s first start at defensive tackle in the season-opener, the Huskies topped Long Beach State, 16-9, at Anaheim Stadium, and No. 67 registered five tackles for loss for 35 yards. Guess who made MAC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 1?

Added D-line teammate Bob Morgan (1978-81): “Coach Mallory made a nice move. Max was the quickest [of us], and coach wanted more speed with our slant defense. By the time Max was a junior and senior, he came into his own.”

Decades before concussion protocol, Morgan recalled some Gill on-the-job training.

“I think it was Toledo,” Morgan said. “I really got waylaid in the game and didn’t remember a thing. That Monday, when we watched the film, you could see Buppy telling me what to do on every play. He was a tough but caring person.”

Morgan also was thankful to be on the same side of the ball so that he “didn’t have to block him at practice.”

The O-line perspective?

“Buppy fit right in as a true freshman” Hudetz said. “I only played one year with him. You’ve got an NIU O-line with Dan Rosado, Randy Clark, Jim Hannula, and Buppy – all who played in the NFL. He was 100 percent all the time in everything.”

Which, Hudetz noted, carried on to his family and professional life.

Post-NIU, circa 1983-85, Gill was a free agent with the NFL’s Detroit Lions, then three USFL clubs, the Michigan Panthers, Denver Gold and Memphis Showboats.

You may have heard of his uncle, the late All-Pro offensive guard Bob Kuechenberg of the Miami Dolphins in the 1970s.

For years, Gill sold art in Michigan and then went into education in the early 2000s.

The Buppy nickname? According to Morgan, Gill’s parents gave it to him. Back in the day, Gill was Buppy to all.

Except the danged sports information director, who lived for nicknames. Somehow “Sackman” never caught on. Sorry, Buppy.

Morgan summed up Gill best:

“A good man, a good football player, a good father and a good educator.”