Austin celebration set for ailing Texas ex, Hall of Fame-bound Steve McMichael | Golden

Steve McMichael waited a long time to earn a membership in his sport’s most exclusive club.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame beckons, and the former Texas Longhorns and Chicago Bears star will call it joy on Aug. 3 when he's inducted into the hallowed halls in Canton, Ohio, as a senior selection with six other all-time greats, joining Super Bowl XX teammates Walter Payton, Richard Dent and Mike Singletary in football immortality. Dent called McMichael in February to deliver the news.

McMichael, known as "Mongo" by some and "Bam Bam" by others, made it in his 25th year of eligibility, and it’s wonderful that it appears he will be around to be celebrated as he continues to wage a four-year fight against Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that has taken away his ability to move and talk.

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Doctors didn’t think he would still be around in 2024, but they didn’t know the same tough-minded spirit that made him an all-time great sustains him to this day.

McMichael, 66, is a part of a class with defensive end Dwight Freeney, linebacker Randy Gradishar, wideout/returner Devin Hester, wideout Andre Johnson, defensive end Julius Peppers and linebacker Patrick Willis.

Former teammates and friends will give him his flowers a week before the Canton festivities. Local radio personality Ed Clements will host a video tribute to McMichael at 1 p.m. Saturday at Scholz Garten, an open-to-the-public event that will include Texas alumni Johnny “Sky” Walker, Lawrence Sampleton, Brad Shearer, Doug Dawson, Rick Ingraham, Robert Brewer, Eric Holle and Randy McEachern.

“It’s almost unbelievable,” longtime UT administrator Chris Plonsky said. “This big giant of a man has an illness that has taken away his size and his strength, but it hasn’t taken away his spirt. It’s so wonderful that his friends are doing such a great thing to honor him.”

The 1979 consensus All-American is on the short list of greatest defensive tackles in Longhorns history, right there with Kenneth Sims (who was McMichael's backup for two years), Doug English, Scott Appleton, Diron Talbert, Casey Hampton and Shaun Rogers, to name a few.

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The list of Longhorns with busts in Canton is a short one. McMichael is joining Earl Campbell, Bobby Layne, Tom Landry, Tex Schramm and Bobby Dillon.

A South Texas legend is born

McMichael was an absolute terror between the lines. Intimidation was his game, and he excelled at it. He left school as the career leader in tackles (369) and forced fumbles (11), and opponents will attest that he loved a good scrap at the bottom of the pile.

McMichael played every sport imaginable in tiny Freer, 75 miles west of Corpus Christi. He was known as a big-time football player but drew the interest of major league baseball teams as a high school catcher.

“He could throw it from a crouch behind home plate all the way to the center field wall without standing up,” said his younger sister Kathy. “He played every sport imaginable, including tennis. Imagine Stevie playing tennis. He was pretty good, too.”

McMichael received 75 football scholarship offers and soon grew tired of the phone ringing, especially on Wednesday nights when the family was watching a doubleheader of "Starsky & Hutch" and "Charlie’s Angels."

“Tell them I’m not here,” he would tell his mom.

Once he committed and signed with Texas, McMichael arrived in town expecting stardom to happen right away. It didn’t take long for him to make a splash alongside Shearer while establishing what turned out to be a lifelong connection as a teenager.

From the back fence at Scholz to the Chicago Bears

A chance confrontation was the impetus for a life-changing friendship.

McMichael was already making a name for himself in 1977, but this was decades before NIL, so fun money was pretty tight for college football players and frat boys. The suds at Scholz Garten — the best bar in town — were a bit too pricey for frat boys and football players, but it was still the hot spot. The most daring figured out they could get the best of both worlds by stocking up on cheaper beer at the nearby 7-Eleven and sneaking into Scholz over a fence in the back.

Larry Bales owned the place and one night happened to catch McMichael and his high school/Longhorns teammate Bill Acker in midclimb, a case of beer in tow.

“Why are trying to sneak beer in?” Bales said.

“Because the SOB who owns this place charges too much,” McMichael answered.

“I’m that SOB,” Bales replied. “Now, I know you two boys can whup my ass, but you will have to do it before I let you in here.”

They spared the old guy. McMichael liked that someone actually stood up to him and his buddy. From there, a friendship developed.

McMichael’s father, E.V., raised him from early childhood after his biological father left the family. The older McMichael, an oil field superintendent, died at the hands of a gunman outside his South Texas home on the night of Oct. 30, 1976. Earlier that day, 19-year-old freshman Steve McMichael had earned his first start at defensive end in a 31-28 win over Texas Tech.

Bales would become a confidant of sorts, an adult presence in his life outside of Darrell Royal — his head coach for one year before retiring after a 5-5-1 season — and defensive coordinator Fred Akers.

Bales went on to serve in the Texas House of Representatives, and McMichael became one of the most feared defensive linemen in the country.

McMichael blossomed. He and defensive back Johnnie Johnson were the All-Americans on the 1979 defense, which was one of the stingiest in program history. The Horns went 9-3 in Akers’ third year as coach and gave up only nine points per game. They famously held Oklahoma's Billy Sims, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, to 73 yards on 20 carries in a 16-7 win.

McMichael, voted team MVP as a senior, was a monster up front in his final season with 133 tackles. He hunted quarterbacks and running backs with the same verve that he hunted rattlesnakes in the offseason. At season's end, he was a consensus choice for Associated Press All-American and defensive MVP of the Hula Bowl.

A slow start in the pros before hitting his stride

The New England Patriots drafted McMichael in 1980 after his stellar college career but cut him after his rookie year. Bales placed a call in 1981 to Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan to put in a word for the big kid who had just moved into his house along with a Great Dane named Roscoe P. Coltrane, a nod to the fictional sheriff of "Dukes of Hazzard" fame.

McMichael assured Bales he was in great shape and would make the Bears roster because he had been out running every day with Roscoe.

A couple of days into training camp, Ryan called Bales.

“You should have sent the dog instead,” he said.

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Not to worry. McMichael figured it out, and Bales, who negotiated his $75,000 rookie contract with the Patriots, was there to represent him in the Windy City.

When Bales died of a stroke in 1993, McMichael was unable to attend the funeral because of his football schedule. He invited Bales’ son David and his friend Jimbo Cotton to San Diego a couple of weeks later to watch him play against the Chargers.

“I’m going to put on a show for Larry,” he told them.

By then, the glory days in Chicago football were long past. Coach Mike Ditka had gotten fired after a 5-11 finish in 1992, and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls were all the rage behind an all-everything guard named Michael Jordan. Meanwhile, the Bears were 3-5 and in the midst of a 7-9 debut under head coach Dave Wannstedt. McMichael was in his 13th season, one of only six players left from the championship team.

Team struggles aside, he kept his promise. The Bears harassed Chargers quarterback John Friesz the entire afternoon, and McMichael came up with a sack and a handful of tackles in the 16-13 win.

“Steve told us to bring a bottle of Crown Royal and three cigars into the locker room to celebrate, and we sat there and drank a few,” David Bales said.

When Wannstedt walked into the locker room to ask Mongo why he hadn’t boarded the team bus for the airport, McMichael, wearing only a jockstrap said, “We’re toasting to Larry Bales.”

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By then, Bales was a household name in the franchise’s offices. He always kept a hand on McMichael’s shoulder from afar and even helped his sister Kathy get a job once McMichael moved her from East Texas to Austin as she came to grips with a divorce.

“He helped me through a tough time,” she said. “I wasn’t eating much, and he took care of me like he always had.”

She has worked in the state attorney general’s office for 30 years and is currently the legislative director in the child support division.

A pro career to remember

McMichael and Chicago were a real match. On the field, he was the perfect enforcer in Ryan’s famed 46 defense, which was, frankly, a team full of enforcers. Off the field, he was a man about town. He was unapologetically boisterous, and you got what you saw with Mongo.

He famously called out a young MLB umpire named Angel Hernandez at Wrigley Field before leading Cubs fans in a rousing rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Hernandez glared into the press box, but what was he going to do?

Easily one of the best free agent acquisitions in franchise history, McMichael made two Pro Bowls, was named to seven All-Pro teams and retired with 95 sacks, the 53rd-most in league history. He even experienced success as a professional wrestler, famously feuding with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and appearing in Wrestlemania XI as Lawrence Taylor’s bodyguard.

Recent years haven’t been kind

When the league announced the new class in February, he wasn’t alone. Kathy and former Bears teammates Gary Fencik, Matt Suhey, Jim Morrissey, Jim Osborne, Tyrone Keys, Kris Haines and Bruce Herron were bedside at his Homer Glen home, clinking champagne glasses in his honor.

It’s been a rough journey. McMichael has been rushed to the hospital many times over the past three years but has stayed in the fight, just as he did on the gridiron. The disease has robbed him of the ability to communicate orally, but he can answer yes with one click of his eyes or no with two blinks. He can also relay messages with the use of an eye gaze machine.

During a 2023 visit, Bales asked his friend if he could snag one of the dozens of game balls in Mongo’s trophy room.

He grabbed one from a win over the Green Bay Packers, but the answer was a quick no. With the eye gaze machine, McMichael instructed David to look under the clock for another ball. He found one from Chicago’s 44-0 road demolition of the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowl season.

“Not that one,” McMichael answered with some colorful language attached. “Get the other one next to my hat.”

Bales found his prize. It was from the 46-10 Super Bowl XX win over New England.

“I remember saying, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Bales said. “I couldn’t believe he gave me his most prized game ball. We both started crying. I’ve never been so happy and so sad at the same time.”

Chicago’s 15-1 championship team will go down as having the most intimidating defense in league history. The Bears beat opponents into submission on Sundays and hung out like college frat boys during the week. In 2015,  he appeared on a Chicago television station with defensive line mates Richard Dent and William "Refrigerator" Perry to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of the Bears’ Super Bowl.

“Any team that gets that state of mind where you’re like at the family picnic with your brothers and uncles and dad, you’re going to win,” McMichael said. “Every team I know that’s won a championship has evolved into that. A family.”

McMichael won’t attend next month's Hall of Fame ceremony, but his brother Richard, nephew Ricky, sister Sharon and daughter Macy will be there. Meanwhile, Sharon and former Bears teammates Fencik, Jim Osbourne and Kevin Butler are planning to watch with him from his home. Jarrett Payton, the son of Walter Payton, will present McMichael, and the Hall will show videos of interviews over the years.

Paying it forward in the fight against ALS

As McMichael nears the end of his journey, those around him are continuing the fight to find a cure for this insidious disease. Bales, the president of Texans for Cures, is working for UT graduate Dr. Mary Pat Moyer’s Foundation for Cell, Gene, and Tissue Innovation research team on a groundbreaking Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trial that they hope will save lives moving forward.

Bales wants everyone to know that McMichael, who helped raise thousands of dollars over the past three decades to help combat cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases, was much more than a football player.

“Steve’s legacy will be that he helped other people all live a better quality of life,” Bales said. “He had reputation as a tough player but had a huge heart and was generous to a fault.”

For now, he’s living for this induction. One can’t help but wonder ,how it would have gone in Canton had Mongo been there in full health. It would have easily been the most epic Hall of Fame acceptance speech ever and the censors would have been tested for sure.

Thankfully, his play on the field and his love for his family and friends will speak volumes for years to come.

To donate to ALS research, visit http://fcgti.org/.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin celebration set for ailing Texas ex, Hall of Fame-bound Steve McMichael | Golden