LI native, NFL's John Mackey dies

John Mackey, the Long Island high school football legend who redefined the role of tight end during a Hall of Fame professional career and whose early onset of dementia helped move the NFL and players union to fund retired players' care, died Wednesday in a Baltimore assisted-living facility. He was 69.

For the past 15 years, Mackey suffered with frontotemporal dementia, believed to be caused by blows sustained during his playing days.

Raised in Roosevelt and a three-sport star at Hempstead High School, Mackey played for nine of his 10 pro seasons with the Baltimore Colts, his 75-yard scoring reception of a deflected pass a highlight in Baltimore's 1971 Super Bowl victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

He finished his career, which included a final season with the San Diego Chargers in 1972, with 331 catches for 5,236 yards and 38 touchdowns. But his more lasting mark on the sport was how he changed the tight end position from one that emphasized blocking into one that added a downfield threat.

"I didn't know tight ends couldn't run deep," Mackey said. "I saw [Colts' wide receivers] Raymond Berry and Jimmy Orr go deep and figured I was as fast as they were." His first pass reception, in his first NFL game, resulted in a 53-yard touchdown, against the team he had hoped would draft him, the Giants.

Upon graduation from Syracuse University, where he majored in economics and also played lacrosse, Mackey in fact was drafted to play in New York -- by the American Football League Titans, who were about to rename themselves the Jets and move from Manhattan's Polo Grounds to Queens. He chose instead to play for the Colts in the established NFL and was known for both his speed and for being tough to tackle.

Mackey's position as the first players union president following the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 has been cited by some as the reason he was not inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame until 1992. But his fight with dementia helped lead in 2006 to the league's "88 Plan" -- so named because Mackey wore No. 88 -- providing up to $88,000 a year for nursing or day care -- or $50,000 for home care -- to ex-players with dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Born Sept. 24, 1941, in Manhattan, Mackey was one of seven children of the Rev. Walter Mackey, who moved his young family to Long Island and whose Mount Sinai Baptist Church in Roosevelt literally was built with the help of his six sons. His father was uninterested in sports, but young John won the 1958 Thorp Award as Nassau County's top high school football player, starred on the Hempstead basketball team that won 63 of 65 games, and was state pole vault champion.

At Syracuse, he roomed with Ernie Davis, the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy. Mackey enjoyed teasing Davis that his uniform number, 88, indicated he was twice the player Davis -- No. 44 -- was.

Mackey is survived by his wife of 47 years, the former Sylvia Cole; two daughters, Lisa Hazel of Bowie, Md., and Laura Nattans of Baltimore; a son, John of Atlanta; and six grandchildren. And by the John Mackey Award, established in 2000 by the Nassau County Sports Commission, annually voted to college football's outstanding tight end.

With Greg Logan