After death of this ex-UCM football star, Super Bowl weekend takes on new meaning | Opinion
Joe and Tami Grubb met at a Super Bowl party in Louisburg, Kansas, in 1996. Tami, 52, of Odessa, said it didn’t take long for the two of them to hit it off.
“I was teaching and coaching in Louisburg and his brother-in-law asked me if I was seeing anyone. I said no, and he introduced me to Joe at a Super Bowl party.”
The rest, as the adage goes, is history.
Joe and Tami were married for 28 years and raised three daughters — all of whom played college sports — in the small town of Odessa, about 37 miles east of Kansas City.
Sunday’s Super Bowl will mark the first in almost 30 years the couple will not watch the big game together. And that truly breaks my heart. Joe Grubb died Jan. 22 at age 54 after a short but courageous battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
We played college football together at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg back in the early 1990s. Among teammates, he was known as Grubb, so I will refer to him in this column as such.
GoFundMe for Odessa athletes
Grubb’s memorial service is at 2 p.m. Saturday at Odessa High School. A GoFundMe set up to help his family navigate this difficult time has raised about $37,000 of its $68,000 goal. Grubb wore No. 68 at UCM. He was a 1989 graduate of Odessa High School and an all-state football player and wrestler for the Bulldogs.
Funds raised would be used to help local programs and athletes in the Odessa R-VII School District and at UCM, according to Grubb’s obituary.
Last fall, Grubb was elected into the Odessa R-VII Public Foundation Hall of Fame and the school honored him before a football game in September.
During my time at UCM, Grubb played linebacker exceptionally well. He was what football coaches would describe as a tough SOB. Grubb was fast, strong and would slobberknock a ball carrier. He left UCM as one of the school’s all-time leading tacklers and was inducted into UCM’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010.
As a player, I saw him as mean and ornery as a Missouri mule, the state’s official animal and the mascot of the UCM football team. How fitting.
Not only was Grubb a talented football player — he was a leader. He was team captain when I enrolled in 1992. That same year, I recall him being featured on the cover of the team’s media guide. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out he was the top dog on a defense that was nationally-ranked that year on the Division II level.
A legend to those who knew him
In a tribute to Grubb posted to social media, former UCM linebacker David Neuenschwander paid homage to a man all of us former Mules knew as one of a kind.
“Joe Grubb is a legend,” Neuenschwander, a Jefferson City native living in Ohio, wrote on Facebook. “This man, an All-American linebacker, took me under his wing and taught me the collegiate game. The greatest pure athlete I’ve ever known. This larger than life man lost his battle this week and I’m absolutely devastated. We lost a one of a kind teammate, brother and friend.”
Away from the field, Tami knew Grubb as a loyal, dedicated husband and father to their three girls, Kylin, Kloee and Kinly.
“He was loyal to his family,” Tami said. “He was very involved in the girls’ school. He did school projects with them. He was passionate about them playing sports at a high level. He was always there helping them and encouraging them. We raised three college athletes. He just always made time for them.”
Joe Grubb had a soft side
When we spoke, I asked Tami to tell me more about Grubb’s softer side, something his former football teammates rarely saw. She fought through the emotions of the moment and said: “It’s hard to put into words.”
Grubb worked in construction at J.E. Dunn. Each morning, he would text Tami a loving message, she said.
“He always said I was his best friend,” Tami said. “Every day I would always get a text that said ‘good morning, beautiful, I love you.’ He always texted something sweet and kind. I would always wake up to it on my way to work. He was just sweet — a side you guys didn’t see. Thoughtful and loving. That is what I will remember.”
Much like those close to Grubb, Tami said she would remember her husband as a fighter. We all knew the battle Grubb faced against brain cancer was a tough deal. But deep down, if anyone could beat it, that person would be Joe Grubb.
“There was nothing he couldn’t handle or fight,” Tami said.
I don’t doubt that at all.
