Graffiti Bowl has friends in McGills

By RON AGOSTINI
BEE SPORTS COLUMNIST


Last Updated: November 16, 2006, 06:27:01 AM PST


On the surface, the talking points leading to Saturday afternoon's 14th renewal of the Graffiti Bowl sound right.
The Modesto Junior College Pirates, the home team, return to the bowl created for them for the first time in four years. When they do qualify for the bowl game, they're a potent 7-1. They're also familiar with their opponent, Laney of Oakland, through recent non-league games and scrimmages.

All correct. But not a complete picture.

Fact is, the Graffiti Bowl probably would have been buried in the bowl-game cemetery if not for the efforts of its new sponsor.

The sponsor's leader, by the way, resides in Placerville, while his heart still beats in Modesto.

His name is Kevin McGill, the president and CEO of Absolute Loans Inc., featuring 10 branches spread throughout the West. McGill, 38, is better known locally, however, as a hard-hitting linebacker for Downey High during the mid-'80s and later for Arizona State and Wyoming.

The cover of The Bee's 1985 high school football preview said it all — a close-up of McGill and his helmeted head next to the words "Blue Thunder."

Today, Kevin McGill and older brother Billy — Billy runs Modesto's Absolute Loans office — are responsible for keeping alive the Graffiti Bowl.

One month before last year's Graffiti Bowl game between Hartnell and Yuba, the McGills received a 911 call from MJC coach Sam Young. The bowl game had no sponsor, no local tie-in and, well, not much momentum. Somehow, the McGills threw enough 11th-hour support on the table to stage the game.

"We're trying to make it a special event for the city of Modesto," Kevin McGill said Wednesday. "It's important that we do it very well."

Thanks to 12 months of planning, the McGills have spent about $40,000 toward their goal. They've borrowed from the template of the Coca-Cola Modesto Relays — a sports event surrounded by a community fair theme featuring bounce houses, food booths, clowns, face-painting artists and, yes, even an Elvis impressionist.

The McGills promise old-fashioned fun and, they hope, a good game. To know them is to understand why they feel the need to give back.

"We were raised in south Modesto. I probably would have been dead by now if it wasn't for football. Sports saved my life," said Billy McGill, a Modesto High graduate who still serves as an assistant coach. "Junior college is a place kids can play for free. Sam (Young) knows what's going on with each one of his players. He truly cares about them."

The McGills attacked football, all right, and the game took its toll on both. Billy McGill, 43, like his younger brother, was a local football icon who was pursued by many big schools before he settled on Washington. There, he spent three injury-ravaged years before — get this — he finished his eligibility at MJC in 1985, while Kevin sat on the city's prep football throne.

The McGills still share many things in common besides their genes — creaky knees, an unconditional passion for the game and a desire to help young men and women back home. They view the Graffiti Bowl as their outreach vehicle.

The Kevin McGill Foundation already has made a difference. Last summer, it funded a trip by Beyer High fullback-linebacker Michael Guerra to Tucson for the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine. Guerra, who carries a 4.22 GPA, hopes to become a doctor.

"We're always looking for kids who need help, kids who could use a boost like we did," Kevin McGill said. "I'm proud to be in a position to give back to a city that gave so much to my brother and me."

This fall, local high school football players sold approximately 500 tickets for Saturday's game, with half of the proceeds kicked back to their respective schools.

Former Graffiti Bowl sponsors, such as the SOS and the late Fred Anderson and Pacific Coast Building Products, deserve a thank-you for their years of support. They've passed the baton to Absolute Loans, which answered when called. As fate dictated, it received a golden touch of benevolence — MJC making its first Graffiti Bowl appearance since 2002.

In fact, the Pirates (7-3) will trot out their best team in five years Saturday. An eighth victory will elevate them into an elite class. Only seven teams in MJC's 84-year football history have won more than seven games.

So the story lines, the McGills included, sharpen.

Bee sports columnist Ron Agostini can be reached at 578-2302 or ragostini@modbee.com.