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The Life of DAVID LOGAN

THE ORLANDO SENTINEL

FORMER BUCS TACKLE DAVID LOGAN DIES AT 42

Charean Williams of The Sentinel Staff

TAMPA - Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers nose tackle David Logan appeared to be the picture of health. He ran and lifted weights, never ate stadium hot dogs or airline food and always drank lots of bottled water.

That is why his death has created shockwaves in the Bucs organization.

Logan, 42, collapsed Tuesday night while on the telephone. He was pronounced dead at Tampa General Hospital at 8:36 p.m.

An autopsy Wednesday said Logan died of respiratory failure caused by blood clots in his left leg that broke loose and went to his lungs.

"I don't know how these things happen," said Bucs play-by-play announcer Gene Deckerhoff, who had worked with Logan for the past eight years on the team's radio broadcasts. "If there's a candidate that I know that would live to be 100, it's Dave Logan. ... He was too young to die."

Logan, a Pittsburgh native, played at the University of Pittsburgh and was a 12th-round pick for the Bucs in 1979.

Despite missing all but five games of his rookie season with a knee injury, Logan left his mark in the team record book. He played 112 games in eight seasons with the Bucs, earning the second-most sacks (39) and the sixth-most tackles (624) in team history. His best season was 1984, when he was named to the All-Pro team and the Pro Bowl.

Logan, who finished his career with the Green Bay Packers in 1987, began his broadcasting career with Tampa Bay's NBC affiliate WFLA-TV in 1990. Since then, he had worked as a sports reporter and anchor for WTOG-TV, an independent station in Tampa, and Bay News 9, a 24-hour news station in Tampa. He also had done sideline reports and color analysis for CBS Sports, the Sunshine Network and Jefferson-Pilot.

"In today's sportscasting, there's a lot of rah-rah, sock-em, but David knew he had a different style of broadcasting," said Jeff Ryan, the executive producer of the Bucs Radio Network. "He was a true professional, and he understood the game."

Survivors include his mother, Louise; and his children, David, 12, and Katie, 6; brother, Arthur; sister, Angela; and wife, Maxine. A memorial service will be 3 p.m. Saturday at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Tampa.

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