McMillan ‘one of those kids that everybody loved’

MOSCOW, Idaho – Wally Clark’s wife usually made two sack lunches every day – one for her husband, the head football coach at Murrieta (Calif.) Valley High School, and one for Eric McMillan, a standout defensive back for the Nighthawks.

“I’d bring one for ‘E-Mac’,” Clark said. “I wasn’t the only one. My wife would send care packages up to him in Idaho. His counselor took care of him and did things for him. The booster club here bought his letterman’s jacket because that was the only way he was going to have one.”

Clark said teachers, classmates and teammates helped McMillan as much as they could because he was “a wonderful kid and he’d overcome so much.”

McMillan, a redshirt freshman cornerback on the University of Idaho football team, was shot Sunday evening at his Moscow apartment and died early Monday morning at Gritman Medical Center. The tragedy rocked the Vandal football program and athletic department. Numerous players were teary-eyed as they left athletic department offices at the Kibbie Dome following a brief team meeting Monday afternoon.

“They’re pretty shook up,” Idaho coach Nick Holt said. “We gathered as a football team, and we’ll get through this together.”

Asked what he told the team at the meeting, Holt tried to respond, but stopped when his eyes filled with tears.

UI Athletic Director Rob Spear said funeral arrangements had not been completed Monday. McMillan’s twin sister, Erica, was expected to fly from California to Moscow today. Idaho’s football practice was canceled Monday. Spear said Idaho’s game against Oregon in Eugene this Saturday probably will go on as scheduled.

McMillan’s coaches at Idaho and Murrieta Valley said McMillan was popular with classmates and teammates. Clark and Murrieta Valley basketball coach Steve Tarabilda said McMillan was never involved in trouble.

“He was a great kid, a fun-loving kid,” Holt said. “If he had any problems, we didn’t know about it.”

Clark said McMillan moved from Alabama to Murrieta as a freshman. McMillan’s mom lives in Florida and is in failing health, so much so that an aunt had moved there to help with her care, Clark said.

“My understanding was Eric was sending money home to help her,” Clark said.

McMillan apparently lived with his aunt while he went to high school in Murrieta. Clark said McMillan never knew his father, but that “someone told me today that he might have met his dad for the first time this summer.”

McMillan’s scholarship papers at Idaho were signed by an uncle who was McMillan’s legal guardian, Spear said.

“He was just one of those kids that everybody loved,” said Tarabilda, who was also the public address announcer for Murietta Valley’s football games. “He was a kid who got involved in preparing for assemblies, who helped set up for dances.”

McMillan played basketball early on at Murrieta Valley, but then decided to concentrate on football and earning a scholarship. He was also a standout on the track team.

“He wasn’t the greatest of students, but he realized he had to get it done,” Tarabilda said. “That question of why (McMillan was shot) looms large because this is a kid who looked like he was figuring out life. I just can’t visualize him putting himself in an awkward situation where someone would want to take his life.”

Clark described McMillan as having a “Colgate smile” and a grade-point average above 3.0. McMillan was active in PALS (Peer Assistant Leadership Students), which involved counseling for peers and mediating student disputes.

“He’s not a gang-banger,” Clark said. “Everybody looked up to him. Everybody who met him ended up being his friend. About six teachers had to go home today. A lot of us used him as a yardstick, as a model of the way you go about doing things and overcoming things. The youth pastor from his church came over today.

“He was one of the top four or five athletes I’ve coached,” added Clark, a head coach for 14 years. “He was really quick. I used to tell him he was the only guy I knew that could play tennis by himself.”

McMillan wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school. Former Idaho coach Tom Cable, whose staff brought McMillan to Moscow, said several I-AA schools and possibly San Jose State were interested in McMillan.

“The kid did everything you asked him to do,” said Cable, now the offensive coordinator at UCLA. “He was a talent, a good athlete, a good cornerback. He was a character, one of those fun-loving, hard-working kids that you want in your program.”

Cable couldn’t recall many details about McMillan’s family during his recruiting visit. “What I do remember is Eric was a kid just looking for an opportunity; he was just hungry to play. What a shame.”

At Idaho, McMillan beat out several older players to earn a starting job. He made 10 tackles and had an interception in Idaho’s first three games.

“Eric was an excellent football player, an excellent human being,” Holt said. “He had a great, great future ahead of him.”