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George Wheeler, a key member of East Carolina's football team during a period (1966-70) when the school entered the Southern Conference and made the leap from the small-college division to the then major-college ranks, died Friday after a lengthy bout with cancer.

A defensive lineman, Wheeler played most of his career under legendary coach and Hall of Fame member Clarence Stasavich. It was a time of profound transition in the Pirate football program, one in which East Carolina embarked on a permanent path which departed from playing members of the old North State Conference — Catawba, Lenoir Rhyne and other NAIA Carolinas schools — to a more ambitious schedule against the higher-profile opponents of that day's college football landscape.

Wheeler was one of the linchpins on a freshman team which was considered by some to be the best squad ever assembled at the school up to that time — a team which, according to accounts from coaches and team members of the era, was able to manhandle the varsity in scrimmages.

Remembering George Wheeler

In recent months, Bonesville published two articles about George Wheeler. A 'Pirate Time Machine' feature, written by Ron Cherubini, was based on a series of first-hand interviews with Wheeler, touching on his life and his career as a Pirate. The other story, also penned by Cherubini, recounted Wheeler's inspirational October return to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for Letterman's Day. Here are the links:

• Pirate Time Machine: George Wheeler

• Pirate Devotion Nets Magic Moment

That freshman team, coached by former ECU player and long-time assistant coach and administrator Henry Van Sant, was undefeated in a season which included a number of wins by huge margins.

Van Sant, also a member of the ECU Hall of Fame, compared Wheeler and his peers to the ones in the book and forthcoming ESPN movie "Junction Boys," about Bear Bryant's 1954 Texas A&M Aggies and their boot-camp-like preseason camp.

"That whole story could have been written about that 1966 team," said Van Sant. "The ones that stuck with it have developed a bond that have lasted a lifetime."

The Pirates of that day included familiar names like Butch Colson, Don Tyson, Stu Garret and Jim Gudger, among others. They were members of a program Van Sant called "the toughest, hardest working guys I've ever been around in my lifetime."

But Wheeler had a softer side that Van Sant carries as a life value to this day.

"I always acted like a 'macho' guy," recalled Van Sant, who attributes a touching gesture by Wheeler after the final game of Wheeler's senior season to profoundly changing that iron facade.

"George Wheeler taught me it was okay for a man to say to another man, 'I love you'," said Van Sant. "After that last game, he came up to me and said, 'I love you, Coach.'"

Wheeler, who went on to receive a graduate degree from ECU, went into coaching himself and impacted the lives of aspiring players in much the same way many of the former Pirates who toiled under Van Sant say they were positively influenced.

Van Sant has stayed in touch with many of his "boys" over the decades and took particular satisfaction in Wheeler's decision to choose the coaching profession as an avocation.

"George spent his life helping kids and helping others," said Van Sant. "He was one the most memorable people in my entire life. I would consider him like a son."

Visitation with Wheeler's family was held Saturday evening at the Wheeler family home in Lexington, SC. Wheeler's funeral will be conducted Monday at 2 p.m. at St. Andrews Evangelical Church, also in Lexington, with the burial service immediately following at Wood Bridge Memorial Cemetery.