Thanks Rich McKay
(December 15, 2003)

Rich McKay grew up with the Bucs. He was a ball boy when his father was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers first head coach. He had been employed by the Buccaneers organization for a dozen years and was the General Manager for nine seasons. He has been instrumental in the turning the Bucs into a championship team. McKay always considered the future, brought continuity to the present and provided a link to the past.

Today, Rich McKay took the General Manager's job with the Atlanta Falcons. How he left town is the not the subject of this article. A diminished role and conflicts with head coach Jon Gruden are often cited as causes. The reason for this writing is to thank McKay and to celebrate his place in Buccaneers history.

Rich McKay was born March 16, 1959 in Eugene, Oregon. He grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was the legendary head coach at USC, and Tampa, when his father was named head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He graduated from Tampa's Jesuit High School, earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and got a law degree at Stetson College.

Rich McKay jokes that he still had hair when he was a ball boy during the 1976 Buccaneers training camp. His father John McKay was the team's first head coach and the team suffered through 26 straight defeats before winning its first game. He father encouraged him not to get into football and Rich McKay practiced law in Tampa, but he did serve as the Bucs' legal counsel from 1986 to 1991 and helped rework of the team's lease agreement with the Tampa Sports Authority.

Rich McKay had always impressed former Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse and McKay came back to his roots in 1992. He continued to rise within the organization and in November 1994, McKay was promoted to the team's general manager. At the time, there were plenty of skepticism about naming McKay to the position. The Buccaneers had posted ten straight losing seasons before Rich McKay took over as GM.

Partly because the coaching staff had too much control of the college draft, the team had historically bad drafts. Rich McKay changed the process and the first two selections with him as GM were Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks. Over the years, he turned the Bucs into one of the best teams on draft day.

Rich McKay guided the Buccaneers through plenty of turbulent times. There was the ownership change following the death of Hugh Culverhouse. The new owner, Malcolm Glazer quickly learned to trust and rely upon McKay. There was the issue of a new stadium and the talk of the team leaving town. In 1996, and in the midst of all that, McKay hired Tony Dungy as head coach.

Rich McKay provided the Buccaneers with a structure it lacked under Hugh Culverhouse and stability through difficult times. His prowess in the draft and his mastery of the salary cap turned the Bucs into consistent winners.

You will hear many say that Rich McKay, more than any one person, is responsible for bringing the Lombardi Trophy to Tampa Bay. Some will say that without his credibility in the community Raymond James Stadium would have never been built and the Bucs would have celebrated Super Bowl victory somewhere else. Arguments can be made for both those cases.

Rich McKay is well respected in league circles. He co-chairs the NFL's Competition Committee and he has been rumored as a potential candidate to someday become NFL commissioner.

A quote from Rich McKay, in a biography on the Buccaneers official web site, reflects back to happier times. "This is a franchise that I have invested the majority of my life in. I saw us go from the orange uniforms to the pewter uniforms. It's very rare in our business that you get to have a job that you want in a profession you like and you get to do it in your hometown."

Rich McKay deserves our thanks and best wished for the future.