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William "Leo" McKillip, 84, of Omaha, died Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2013, in Omaha. Mass of Christian burial will be 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 28, at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Omaha. Interment will be 2 p.m. Monday in Memorial Park Cemetery in McCook. The family will receive friends 5-7 p.m. Friday with a vigil service at 7 p.m. at the West Center Chapel of Heafey Hoffmann Dworak Cutler Mortuary, 7805 West Center Rd., in Omaha.

William "Leo" McKillip, was born Jan. 26, 1929.

He starred at McCook High School as a player before lettering at Notre Dame under Coach Frank Leahy.

He was a successful football coach in high school, college and professional ranks. He was named the Omaha World Herald College Coach of the year in 1987.

He spent eight years as Dana College’s head football coach. He also served as Dana’s athletic director.

He arrived at Dana in 1985 after service as a coach with the Washington Federals in the USFL.

He also coached in the CFL with Edmonton and Winnipeg, and coached at Idaho State, Saint Mary’s in California and Kimball High School as well.

He was inducted into the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame in 1996, the Dana College Hall of Fame in 2009, and the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2011.

He is survived by sons, Blaine McKillip and wife Tracy, and Creighton McKillip, all of Omaha; grandchildren: Dr. Kate McKillip and husband Brandon McAnally, Megan McKillip, Ryan McKillip, Molly McKillip, and Madeline McKillip; great-grandson Rowan McAnally; and sister Marian Farrell.

Leo was preceded in death by his wife, Patsy; one brother and one sister.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Alzheimer’s Association or the donor's favorite charity.

www.heafeyheafey.com

#2 Posted on line: Thursday, January 2, 2014; Published in The Enterprise, Friday, January 43, 2014

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McKillip returned Dana Football to Prominence

By Jason W. Brooks

When William “Leo” McKillip arrived in Blair in the mid-1980s to help rejuvenate the Dana College football program, there must have been many folks that believed he would succeed.

After all, at that point in his coaching career, McKillip had already completed a football playing career at Notre Dame, coached in high school, college, the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the United States Football League (USFL). McKillip, who passed away last week at age 84, took over a Viking program that was struggling in both winning percentage and numbers. He helped the Vikings make the national playoffs in 1987 and earned the Omaha World-Herald’s Small Colleges Coach of the Year award, and went on to coach at Dana for eight seasons.

Bob Coffey, who was a booster-club president in those days, said McKillip couldn’t have come along at a better time.

“He did some remarkable things,” Coffey said. “There had been a lot of coaching turnover, and I think they had gone 2-8 and were down to about 30 players. I think they went 6-4 his first year, and were in the playoffs in two years.”

McKillip was a multi-sport standout at McCook High School, and chose to play college football at Notre Dame, where he earned letters in 1948 and 1950 under coach Frank Leahy and was on the Fighting Irish track team.

His long coaching career took him and his wife, Patsy, to places like Kimball, Neb., where he coached a high school team, and to Idaho State and St. Mary’s College (Calif.).

McKillip was a defensive coordinator for the Edmonton Eskimos and Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL.

He was also an assistant for the Washington Federals of the short-lived USFL in 1983 and 1984, competing against other USFL stars like former Nebraska running back Mike Rozier.

After the USFL folded amid a host of financial issues, McKillip’s arrival in Blair was not exactly next in the playbook.

“He came back to Nebraska to retire,” Coffey said. “But he saw the opening at Dana, and applied, and we’re so glad he did.”

He also served as the school’s athletic director. He was succeeded by Jim Krueger in 1993, followed by Bill Danenhauer in 2003 and Jason Shumaker in 2009, the year before the college closed.

McKillip’s wife, Patsy, died in 2000 at age 70. They have two sons, Creighton (who played for McKillip at Dana) and Blaine, five grandchildren and one great-grandson. He is also survived by his sister, Marian Farrell.

McKillip was buried in McCook.

Coffey said he noticed how McKillip insisted on strong-armed quarterbacks with lots of throwing ability. He developed a passing game that singlehandedly changed the way all the teams in Dana’s conference approached the quarterback position.

“He helped elevate the quality of football across the conference,” Coffey said. “And all that throwing wasn’t easy, especially on windy days.”

Blaine McKillip said his father loved competition.

“He focused a lot on what makes a good team,” Blaine said. “And his stories weren’t about games. The stories were about camaraderie, and all the fun the team had.”

Blaine recalled an incident in Edmonton, where a defensive linemen, apparently angry with the entire team, decided to turn upside down all the bunks of his teammates in their dorm-style housing. He gave himself away by not overturning his own bunk.

Blaine said his father was the same way off the field as he was on game days.

“If you did something wrong, you knew about it,” Blaine said. “He’d get right up in your grill and make you feel about two inches tall — but you knew it was for your own good.”

After he retired from Dana in the mid-1990s, McKillip was inducted into the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame in 1996, the Dana College Hall of Fame in 2009, and the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2011.

Creighton McKillip never had a starring role with Dana football, but he got to see firsthand what it looked like to resurrect a program.

“The players had all received letters that summer that the college planned to drop football, so that’s why there were only 30 guys left,” Creighton said. “My father was one of the finalists for the Creighton University athletic director job, and he applied to be the AD at Dana as well. I was already enrolled at Dana when the football coach left, so we talked about it, and he applied and got it.”

Creighton said his father loved the game of football, and his knowledge of it was one of his many strong qualities as a coach.

“He was fascinated by the game,” Creighton said. “He loved seeing players develop, and he was always about the team and the camaraderie. He didn’t demand respect — but he got it.”

Vaughn Christensen, who worked in the Dana admissions department during McKillip’s tenure, dealt with the coach on complicated subjects like financial aid.

“He was very well-organized,” Christensen said. “He had high expectations of everyone — even me. The young men wanted to play for him, and learned about all aspects of life, and you can see that, for the most part, those men have gone on to perform well in everything.”

Coffey said a successful coach and program made it easier for the booster club — partly because there were more fans in the seats.

“Leo came along at a time when a president (James G. Kallas) had just resigned amid some property dealings, and the athletic program, really, had not been properly cared for,” Coffey said. “He was hired by an interim athletic director, and we’re glad he took the job. He was not only a great head coach, but a good man, as well.”

~~~ Obituaries courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society~~~

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