Packers great who starred at U dies at his Minnesota home

Gale Gillingham, a standout Gophers guard who became a six-time All-Pro selection for the Green Bay Packers, died Thursday at his home in Little Falls, Minn. He was 67.

Gillingham's son Wade said his father suffered an apparent heart attack while lifting weights. Gillingham had recently retired after owning Goedker Realty in Little Falls.

"He was, quite simply, the best offensive lineman I have ever seen, bar none," said former teammate Larry McCarren, now a Packers radio broadcaster.

Gillingham played for the Packers when they won the first two Super Bowls, starting in Super Bowl II against the Raiders -- Vince Lombardi's last game as Green Bay coach. He was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1982.

"Good or bad, I tried to be honest with everyone," Gillingham said in a story published in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in August. "Sometimes it's not what people want to hear, but I tell it like it is."

Gillingham was born in Madison, Wis., and lived in Wisconsin until his sophomore year in high school, when his family moved to Little Falls.

He was recruited to play for the Gophers by Murray Warmath and was a starter at guard in 1964 and 1965.

"Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston and I sat together during those film sessions," Gillingham told the Journal-Sentinel. "Everyone got the wrath of Lombardi. You can't do everything right every play. He was a hard-driving guy, especially on the offensive linemen. It was his will that drove us."

The 6-5, 265-pound Gillingham was switched briefly to defense in 1972 when Dan Devine was Packers coach and suffered a season-ending knee injury in the second game of the season. Gillingham sat out the 1975 season because of a dispute with Green Bay offensive line coach Leon McLaughlin, returning to play in 1976. But he retired following a 5-9 season.

"The losing killed me," Gillingham said. "I was burned out and beat up both mentally and physically."

Gillingham received consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he told the Journal-Sentinel that he doubted he would get a chance to join the shrine.

"In my best years, I was on some poor teams," he said. "And Jerry [Kramer] isn't in, so we kind of hurt each other's chances. It bothered me in my younger years, but now I'm OK with it. It's out of my control. I just went out there and did my best on every play."

His three sons are international competitors in power lifting and got their starts from their father's coaching.