Paul McKee (American football)
Paul Melvin McKee (April 26, 1923 – January 23, 1999) was an American football end in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins. He played college football at Syracuse University and was drafted in the twelfth round of the 1945 NFL Draft. He played for the Redskins for two years.
 McKee on a 1948 Bowman football card | |||||||||
| No. 45 | |||||||||
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| Position: | End | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | April 26, 1923 Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania | ||||||||
| Died: | January 23, 1999 (aged 75) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| College: | Syracuse | ||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1945 / Round: 12 / Pick: 117 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Like Joe Namath after him, McKee starred in football, basketball, and baseball at Beaver Falls High School in Beaver Falls, PA (1938-1940). In addition to playing football at Syracuse, McKee was a wartime reserve on the Orange basketball team, scoring three points in the one game in which he played (1942-1943).
After retiring from the NFL, McKee embarked on a career of college and high school coaching, teaching, and athletics administration. He started as an assistant coach at the University of Rochester, doing baseball, basketball, and football. He went on to coach high school football at Rome Free Academy, Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, and Rush-Henrietta, all in upstate New York. Between his years at V-V-S and R-H, he was an assistant football coach under John Yovicsin at Harvard (1960-1963). He started the R-H football program with an undefeated freshman team (1964) that continued undefeated the following season. From the fall when that team became seniors until McKee retired from coaching (1968-1972), the five full varsity teams he coached had a record of 37-3 and either won or tied for five conference championships.
One of McKee's sons, Thom, became known nationwide in 1980 for winning $312,700 on the television game show Tic Tac Dough. Another son, Jeff, in 1981, was a first-team All-American defenseman in lacrosse at Syracuse.