This one hits home…Mike Neill was the idol of every kid-athlete in Richland in the early 70’s, including me. He could throw a baseball 90, throw a football 70 yards, close to scratch golfer. I will never forget him “jumping” center against James Edwards at Hec, turning and running to defend as the ball went up…he struggled with booze and dope for decades. The last time I saw him was about 30 years ago, in a bar. He was giving shit to a friend of mine who played on a state champ team, and my buddy got tired of it and said “How many rings have you got?”, and Neill went over the table at him…about a month before that, I played golf with him and a couple others. He drank a fifth of Wild Turkey, and was smoking joints like cigarettes, and tied the course record, IIRC…RIP to a very troubled legend…
DRFS warning for those who observe…
Comments
I had both his brothers as teachers.
That's weird that I've never heard of him. Interesting story.
To Bill Braski