Max McGee
Max McGee
Wide Receiver

Max McGee

"Max was a cool guy." - Jerry Kramer

When Max McGee scored the first-ever touchdown in Super Bowl history, the 34-year-old receiver was hung over and sleep-deprived. Born in 1932 and raised in a small Texas town, McGee was a fifth round pick of the Packers in 1954 and developed a reputation as a big playmaker with speed who dropped easy passes but caught impossible ones. Off the field, the 6-foot-3, 205-pounder was a party animal who gambled on everything from golf to poker. In 1966, towards the end of a 12-year career in which McGee made one Pro Bowl, his Packers faced the Chiefs in Super Bowl I. The evening before the game, McGee, by now a backup who’d caught just four receptions all regular season and wasn’t expecting to play, snuck out of bed after curfew to meet up with two flight attendants whom he’d met at the hotel bar. He didn’t return to his room until 6:30 a.m., and when, in the first quarter of the Super Bowl, the Packers’ starting wideout was injured, Lombardi summoned McGee. With one-hand, McGee made a difficult catch off a Bart Starr throw for a 37-yard TD. McGee caught another touchdown pass in the third quarter, finishing the game with 138 receiving yards as the Packers won. After retiring from football, McGee became a restaurant and nightclub owner.