Matt Suhey, the former Penn State standout who went on to become a Super Bowl champion with the Chicago Bears, has died at 68.
The Daily Herald reported that Suhey died in his sleep Saturday night.
“I am shocked,” former Bears defensive tackle Dan Hampton told the outlet.
Suhey’s football path started in State College, where he played high school ball before heading to Penn State. The 5-foot-11, 217-pound running back spent four seasons with the Nittany Lions from 1976 through 1979, piling up 2,818 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns. He also added 39 catches for 328 yards and two more scores.
The Bears made him a second-round pick in the 1980 NFL Draft, taking him 46th overall, and he became a key part of their identity as the fullback and lead blocker for Walter Payton. Suhey also found the end zone in a big way on the game’s biggest stage, scoring the first touchdown in Chicago’s Super Bowl XX win over the New England Patriots.
“Matt had an awful lot of great runs early in that game when it was still in question,” Hampton told The Daily Herald. “All through the year, when it was third-and-4, everybody would be thinking Walter was going to get it and then - pop - there goes Suhey for 8 right up the middle.
Suhey’s NFL career ended with 2,946 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns, and he was later named one of the 100 greatest Bears of all-time.
“Quality of character, there was no one superior to Matt,” Hampton said. “He was truly a gentleman.
He wasn’t like a bunch of the rest of us who were cutting up. He was, I don’t want to say more adult, but he was real responsible.
He played around with Walter and everyone else but he wasn’t a guy going out to the bar after the game. He was a businessman.”
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