Former Football Star Arrested On West Side
CHICAGO (STMW) - A 1960s city football hero from Farrgaut High School and NFL record-holder was arrested Friday afternoon in the West Side's Lawndale neighborhood and charged with possessing heroin.
About 3 p.m., police saw 62-year-old Mack Herron walk through into the back door of an abandoned building at 1608 S. Drake Ave. and as they stopped him, he allegedly dropped a small tin foil pack containing heroin, police said.
Herron, of the 1800 block of South Hamlin Avenue, was arrested and charged with felony possession of a controlled substance. He is expected to appear in bond court later Saturday.
It was his 20th arrest in Chicago since the late 1960s. The arrests were largely narcotics-related.
Herron was a local football standout at Farragut High School on the West Side in the 1960s. He went on to Canadian Football League after playing college ball at Kansas State, according to his biography on the website for the New England Patriots.
Herron was selling jeans in Chicago when Patriots scout Dick Steinberg who was his college coach alerted the Patriots of his availability after being waived out of the CFL, according to the website.
Herron signed on with the New England Patriots in 1973 where in his first season he broke eight Patriot records and tied another.
Herron, who is 5-foot-5, was known as "Mini Mack.'' The following season he had a combined total yardage of 2,444, shattering the 1966 record held by Gale Sayers for all-purpose yardage, according to the website.
Harrison Area detectives are investigating.
© Sun-Times Media Wire Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
