Mullen dies after career of helping players, coaches
For seven years, Bo Mullen was omnipresent around the Dwyer football program.
An equipment manager by title, Mullen, who died Tuesday, did much more for the players and coaches who got to know him at Dwyer.
“He was that guy you could call a father figure or a grandfather figure,” said former Dwyer assistant and current Cardinal Newman coach Joe Molina.
Dwyer coach Jack Daniels said Mullen, a veteran, had been dealing with health issues for the past few years.
Daniels said Mullen joined the team when his grandson, Keegon Zavattaro, played for the Panthers and then stuck around in the non-glamorous position following Zavattaro’s graduation.
“Probably the hardest position to find in your program — not putting anybody else’s position down — is someone to take care of the equipment, organize it, make sure you have what you need and inventory everything,” Daniels said. “He jumped right in with another parent, and that kind of became his way to give back.”
Although not an official coach, Molina said Mullen did his part in motivating players on and off the field.
“He touched so many lives, from going the extra mile to help these kids out with little things to going ahead and giving them advice,” Molina said. “If they played well, he would congratulate them. If they played poorly, he was the one that — opposed to criticizing them — was getting them up.
“He’d tell you, ‘You played poorly, but you can bounce back.’ ”
Daniels said Mullen’s family didn’t request anything special from the team, but Daniels said it will “definitely” find a way to pay tribute to Mullen’s contributions.
“He loved the kids there,” Daniels said. “He had a great relationship, obviously, for an older gentleman with teenage, mostly black boys, and it shows that this country can get along and [it] doesn’t matter your age, your color or anything.
“They just loved him, and it was a mutual love.”