Former Grand Valley quarterback found dead
Finnerty led Lakers to three D-II crowns
B ALDWIN, MICH. Police say former Grand Valley State quarterback Cullen Finnerty’s body has been found.
Finnerty was found in the woods Tuesday night after disappearing Sunday. Lake County Sheriff Robert Hilts confirmed the death at a news conference. Finnerty was 30.
“We were walking a good line,” said Scott Boyd, who was on the search party that found the body. “I squatted down.
“We had seen some trail. And a girl shouted. She walked right up on it. I thought, ‘Oh no.’ ”
Boyd sat on a curb, staring off into space. “I can’t believe it,” he said.
Finnerty was fishing alone Sunday on the Baldwin River northeast of Baldwin. Police said Finnerty called his wife Sunday night and said he was in danger, according to Hilts.
About 100 current and former football players and coaches from Grand Valley State searched through the thick, swampy woods northeast of Baldwin on Tuesday afternoon, looking for Finnerty.
The players broke up and worked in small teams, stretching out, working slowly through the dense forest, focusing on 2 square miles of private and public land about 65 miles north of Grand Rapids.
Finnerty, who was the starting quarterback on NCAA Division II national title teams in 2003, 2005 and 2006, had spent the holiday weekend with family near Baldwin, according to his father-in-law, Dan Brink.
“We had brats and hamburgers on Saturday and grilled chicken on Sunday,” Brink said. “Everything was cool. It was a great weekend. We had a lot of smiles, a lot of laughs. There were no indications. There were no problems.”
Brink said Finnerty decided to go fishing Sunday night.
“It was a nice night on Sunday, and we thought, ‘There is a nice stretch of the river,’ and he got himself one of those boats, and he had been practicing on it. It’s a riverboat, a raft.
“We were only a quarter-mile from each other,” Brink continued. “He ended up exactly where we told him to end up.”
After Finnerty called his wife, he disappeared.
Police found his small boat but no fishing equipment.
Finnerty was married with two small children.
“This sucks, man,” said Joe Wohlscheid, an offensive lineman when Finnerty was at GVSU. “Cullen was a great guy.”
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was head coach at Grand Valley State in Finnerty’s freshman season.
“It’s very chilling,” Kelly said Tuesday afternoon.
“My heart goes out to the family and his beautiful wife.”