Pat McInally

Pat McInally
No. 87
Position: Punter/Wide receiver
Personal information
Date of birth: (1953-05-07) May 7, 1953
Place of birth: Villa Park, California, U.S.
Height: 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Weight: 210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
College: Harvard
NFL draft: 1975 / Round: 5 / Pick: 120
Career history
Career highlights and awards
Career NFL statistics
Receptions: 57
Receiving Yards: 808
Touchdowns: 5
Punts: 700
Punting yards: 29,307
Average: 41.9
Player stats at NFL.com

John Patrick "Pat" McInally (born May 7, 1953) is a former punter and wide receiver for the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals from 1976 to 1985.

Early career

McInally is the son of Jack and Peggy McInally. As a youth, Pat enjoyed spending many hours practicing punting with his father.[1]

McInally was a basketball and football star at Villa Park High School. He attended Harvard University, where he intended to play basketball but then decided to go out for football. He played wide receiver for the Crimson. As a junior he was second in the nation in receiving, setting a new Harvard record of 56 receptions in a single season. He also completed his only collegiate pass, a 46-yard touchdown pass against Yale University. He was named an All-American as a senior.[2] He was drafted in the fifth round of the 1975 NFL Draft. However, he suffered a broken leg while scoring a touchdown in the College All-Star Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and McInally missed his entire rookie year.[3]

Professional career

Perfect Wonderlic score

Paul Brown's practice of drafting intelligent players was, arguably, exemplified by the selection of McInally, who scored the only verified perfect score (among NFL players) on the Wonderlic Test,[4] an intelligence test developed in the 1930s and given to prospective players by the NFL to judge their aptitude for adapting to certain situations.[5][6][7]

According to McInally, "It really did seem like an easy test at the time. One of the reasons I did so well is because I didn't think it mattered. So I think I didn't feel any pressure at all. It was more of a lark, and that's when you do your best. If I took it 100 times I'd probably never do that again."[8] McInally claims it hurt, rather than enhanced, his position in the draft because "coaches and front-office guys don't like extremes one way or the other, but particularly not on the high side. I think they think guys who are intelligent will challenge authority too much."[4][9] He took the test again in 2007 and, McInally stated, "Missed one. Not a bad score after six concussions."[9]

Cincinnati Bengals

McInally was the Bengals punter from 1976 to 1985, and also was a wide receiver during the first half of his career. He led the league in net yards per punt in 1977 (36.4) and in punting average in 1978 (43.1) and 1981 (45.4). His most productive years receiving were in 1977, when he caught 17 passes for 258 yards (a 15.2 average) and three touchdowns, and in 1980, when he caught 18 passes for 269 yards (a 14.9 average) and two touchdowns.[10] He also completed three passes in four career attempts for 81 yards.[10] McInally was the first Harvard graduate to play in a Pro Bowl and a Super Bowl, both in the 1981 season.

Due to a series of concussions, the 6'6", 210-pound McInally punted exclusively in the latter stage of his professional career. He finished his career with 700 punts for 29,307 yards, an average of 41.9 yards per punt. As a receiver, he caught a total of 57 passes for 808 yards and five touchdowns.

Life after football

McInally married Leslie Bevis in 1984. They have two children.[1] They reside in Seal Beach, California.[11]

Pat McInally conceived the Starting Lineup series of action figures circa 1986, the final year of his career, and pitched the idea to Kenner, a leading producer of toys. Kenner agreed to develop it and the line became a top seller. Kenner was later sold to Hasbro. McInally himself was not included in the Starting Lineup line until a 10th-anniversary figure of him was released in 1997.[12] "SLUs," as collectors call the figures, were discontinued after the 2001 Major League Baseball season.

After his retirement, the royalties McInally received from Kenner provided income and also allowed him to work in youth sports and that led to the founding of Good Sports For Life, an organization that, according to McInally, "is dedicated to working with partners to improve youth sports by promoting meaningful participation, improved performance, personal growth, and creating positive experiences for the 37 million kids playing sports today." He writes regular columns on behalf of the organization that appear on NFL.com.[13]

For years he wrote a newspaper column nationally syndicated by King Features, "Pat Answers for Kids." The column, which first ran in the Cincinnati Enquirer, eventually appeared in newspapers nationwide including the Chicago Tribune and the Boston Globe.[2]

In 2006, the Wonderlic Company named McInally its director of marketing and testing to help student athletes prepare for the SAT.[14]

McInally is also a children's book collector. In 2009 he was reported to have sold at auction for $115,000 a rare edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, which had been given to the real Alice (Alice Liddell).[15]

In February 2011, after three years of coaching receivers, McInally was named the unpaid volunteer head varsity football coach at Brethren Christian Junior/Senior High School in Huntington Beach, California.[2] His son Jack, a quarterback, played for Brethren Christian as a junior in 2012.

References

  1. 1 2 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1122894/3/index.htm
  2. 1 2 3 http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/24/sports/la-sp-crowe-20110424
  3. ↑ http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=553028
  4. 1 2 McClellan, Bob (2006-06-15). "McInally continues to perfect the Wonderlic". Rivals.com. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
  5. ↑ Merron, Jeff. 2007. Taking Your Wonderlics. Retrieved from http://espn.go.com/page2/s/closer/020228.html
  6. ↑ 2012. History. Retrieved from http://www.wonderlic.com/about-us/history
  7. ↑ Pollick, Michael. "What is the Wonderlic Personnel Test". www.wisegeek.com. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  8. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20060831003952/http://www.ivyleaguesports.com:80/article.asp?intID=5291. Archived from the original on August 31, 2006. Retrieved October 17, 2006. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. 1 2 Lopresti, Mike (2011-09-26). "Harvard's Ryan Fitzpatrick gets passing grades for 3-0 Bills". USA Today. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  10. 1 2 http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/McInPa00.htm
  11. ↑ Profile, ocregister.com; accessed December 23, 2014.
  12. ↑ Starr, Cindy (1997-05-22). "It's a kick for McInally to break into the Lineup". The Kentucky Post. Archived from the original on 2007-03-29.
  13. ↑ Good Sports For Life website; accessed December 23, 2014.
  14. ↑ McInally continues to perfect the Wonderlic, collegefootball.rivals.com; accessed December 23, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Real Alice book sold for $115,000". BBC News. 2009-12-17. Retrieved 2010-05-21.

External links

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