July 27, 1964 - Chicago Bear players were stunned when aroused shortly after midnight to be informed of the automobile accident in which teammates Willie Galimore and John Farrington were killed last night on an Indiana road near Rensselaer.
Four players said they had seen Galimore and Farrington earlier in the evening.
“We had just been with them at a pizza place,” said Bennie McRae, third-year defensive back. “Herman Lee, Chuck Bivins, Jim Tullis, and I all sat around and talked with them.”
John Szumczyk, rookie halfback from Trinity College, said that at the regular meeting of the offensive squad after dinner last night, “Willie was talking about what we could all do to inspire the team.”
McRae, whose second-floor room in Halas hall, the Bears’ dormitory at St. Joseph College, is across from that of Galimore, said he kept wondering when Willie was going to get home. “We usually watch television together late in the evening, and he was late getting home. That’s unusual for him.”
Veteran halfback Billy Martin reflected a viewpoint held by almost all of the squad.
“It could so easily have happened to any of us,” said Martin. “I’ve driven around that curve too fast lots of times myself.”
Defensive lineman Bob Kilcullen recalled that “we were just admiring Willie’s new car last week.” Galimore drove a Volkswagen with a sun roof.
Defensive tackle Stan Jones said he was sitting in his room talking with defensive end Doug Atkins when “we heard somebody knock on the door of trainer Ed Rozy’s room across the hall. Nobody ever gets Rozy up unless there’s an emergency. It was coach Halas.”
Quarterback Bill Wade, upon hearing of the fatal mishap, awakened Lee and Bivins, two of Galimore’s best buddies.
Wade said Galimore and Farrington “were two of the finest men I’ve ever played football with. It’s going to be awfully difficult to accept.”
“I used to ask Willie how his legs were coming along,” Atkins recalled. “He’d always say they’d be all right, God willing.”
Coach Halas canceled a scheduled full-scale scrimmage this morning but called the players together this afternoon for a brief, subdued signal drill.
Before the drill, the players bowed their heads in a minute of silent prayer after Halas told them: “A great honor can be bestowed on Willie and Bo if you players will dedicate this season to them.”
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