ORONO, Maine -- Take it from those who were there, those of us who never saw Phil McGeoghan in action missed out on seeing a shooting star, much like having the misfortune of being foiled by thick clouds on the night of a meteor shower.

Whether it was at the high jump pit or on the football field, McGeoghan stood out.

"Hands down, he's one of the best athletes I've ever played with," says Jake Eaton, who was the front half of a spectacular passer-receiver duo with McGeoghan in 1999 and 2000 and preceded him into the University of Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

"Phil was probably the best pure athlete we ever had on the track team," says Jim Ballinger, who has seen them all since he came to Orono as a record-setting hurdler in 1963, coached here for 40 years and is himself a UMaine Hall of Famer.

"Not many can excel in two sports like Phil did," says Rolland Ranson, the assistant who coached him. "He was as good a high jumper as there was in the eastern United States."

McGeoghan is the Black Bears' only 7-foot high jumper, holding both the indoor record at an even 7 feet and the outdoor mark at 7 feet, 1/4 inch. He was the America East and New England titlist on multiple occasions. On the gridiron, he ranks fourth among Black Bears in receiving yards (2,343) and sixth in receptions (161).

Growing up in Agawam, Massachusetts, McGeoghan wasn't confined to only two sports. Baseball was his favorite sport, but a rotator cuff injury as a high school sophomore ended those dreams. Still, he played basketball as well as football, and excelled in the decathlon and pentathlon, the triple jump and, of course, the high jump.

He had hopes of going to Boston College, but the football assistant who was recruiting him left the program, BC no longer expressed interest, and he landed at Boston University.

His college offers had been primarily for football, but McGeoghan had hoped to continue with track and field, too.

"Boston University let me do both and offered a good education and I was a big Red Sox fan," says McGeoghan. "I was 17 and living in Boston."

How good is that? Plus, he was starting as a freshman — and then BU dropped football. The decision was announced during the season and BU allowed interested coaches from other schools to attend practices and assess players. Maine football coach Jack Cosgrove came shopping and offered McGeoghan a spot for the second semester.

"He would let me do track," says McGeoghan. "He's a very caring person and a good leader. Maine was the best situation for me."

Still, "it was a rough time," says McGeoghan. "The rug was dragged out from under me. I had to make new friends, meet new teammates."

Now, two decades later, McGeoghan has fond memories of his time in Orono: the camaraderie of those teams, working out together, trudging through the snow to 8 o'clock classes, Pat's Pizza. He was also a Senior Skull and received the M Club's Dean Smith Award as an outstanding scholar-athlete.

"It was a really good experience, the best times of my life," says McGeoghan. "The experiences were much different than at other schools."

He learned from Cosgrove and Walt Abbott "what it meant to be a Black Bear," says McGeoghan.

After leaving Maine he signed as an undrafted free agent with the New York Jets and over the next four injury-plagued NFL seasons he also spent time with the Oakland Raiders, Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints before injuries forced his retirement, but not before he qualified for a pension.

Since then he has been on a coaching career track, including spending 2007-08 at UMaine as a football assistant and completing his degree requirements. This season, that track has taken him to Los Angeles, where he is the new wide receivers coach for the Chargers, leading what is considered one of the NFL's best receiving corps.

The University of Maine Sports Hall of Fame will induct a 10-member class to the 195-member hall at a ceremony held on Friday, Oct. 5 at the Black Bear Inn and Conference Center. For a full list of this year's inductees, please click HERE.

-UMaine-