Dean McKillip is a man of firsts — and some pretty impressive ones.
A 1977 Galesburg High School graduate, Dean McKillip led the Silver Streaks to Galesburg’s first-ever appearance in the Illinois state football playoffs in 1976.
He finished his Streaks football career ranked first in single rushing yards with 1,386 his senior season.
He was the first, and still the only Streaks athlete to throw a shot put 60 feet.
He took first in the state of Illinois in the shot put in the spring of 1977.
He was a starting fullback on Coach Hayden Fry’s first Iowa Hawkeyes football team in 1979.
And he was a member of the first-ever class of the Galesburg Athletic Hall of Fame.
After a long career as an executive with Coca-Cola, Dean McKillip now works for Keurig/Dr. Pepper and resides in Sandy, Utah, a suburb just south of Salt Lake City.
Dean McKillip joined WGIL's Jay Redfern to talk about his time with the Silver Streaks and Hawkeyes.