McMillan, Broussard chosen for hall of fame

Published 11:36 am Monday, March 3, 2008

Two Snohomish County men with ties to the Northwest Football League will be inducted into the Minor League Football Hall of Fame in a Dec. 7 ceremony at the Oasis Resort Casino in Mesquite, Nev.

The Hall of Fame’s board of directors selected Eddie McMillan, 54, of Edmonds, as a coach. McMillan has coached minor league football in the Seattle area since the late 1980s. He also played cornerback in the NFL for the Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks and Buffalo Bills in the 1970s.

The board also tapped Dave Broussard, 40, of Lynnwood, as a coach. Broussard, a former punter, kicker and quarterback in the NWFL, now serves as offensive coordinator and assistant head coach of the Snohomish County Vikings.

The class of 2006 includes 40 inductees from the ranks of players (including women), coaches, trainers, officials, media and executives, said Hall founder Dick Suess of Gig Harbor, who publishes the Minor League Football News.

Snohomish County Vikings head coach Wes Fischer, who nominated Broussard, said while Broussard has an easy-going demeanor on the outside, “he’s a pretty tense fellow” but Fischer added he’s seen him “grow as a person.

“Every year he’s become a person you want working on your team,” Fischer said.

An All-KingCo punter at Bellevue’s Interlake High School, Broussard graduated in 1983. He punted and kicked for Western Washington University for a year, before coming back to Bellevue to attend Bellevue Community College. He punted and kicked for the Bellevue Express, later the Eastside Express of the Northwest Football Association, as the NWFL was known then.

Broussard also landed a job with the Seahawks, as an assistant to the team’s equipment manager during the 1984 and 1985 seasons. Broussard got to know Seahawks’ special teams coach Rusty Tillman well and had several one-on-one workouts with him. He tried out for the Seahawks during the players’ strike in 1987 but did not make the team.

Broussard continued playing with the Express through the 1988 season and won a NFA championship with them his final year. In 1989, Broussard played for the independent Auburn Panthers, which traveled throughout the country, playing teams in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles. When the Panthers folded the next season, Broussard caught on with the Snohomish County Blue Knights, a team associated with Snohomish County Search and Rescue. He played quarterback, punter, kicker and some wide receiver through the 1994 season for the Knights.

In 1997, Broussard learned about the Snohomish County Vikings from kicker Larry Moody and got in touch with Fischer. Broussard joined the team initially as player, but then began to transition into coaching. In 1998, Broussard became offensive coordinator and the next year became assistant head coach. In 1999, Broussard joined forces with former Auburn Panthers head coach Phil Pompeo to coach the offense and the Vikings had their most successful season, finishing first in the regular season standings before losing the championship to the Puget Sound Jets.

Broussard coached the offense and played the quarterback the last five games of the 2000 season. In 2001, he served as quarterbacks coach of the Vikings and in the fall he served as a defensive assistant for the Seattle Warbirds of the Women’s American Football League. The Warbirds went undefeated and had the top-ranked defense in the league.

He returned to the Vikings as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in 2002, a position he still holds.

Broussard also has served as an assistant coach in the Casino Bowl, the national minor league all-star game, four times.

McMillan, who was drafted in the fourth round by the Rams in 1973 after a standout career at Florida State, started his coaching career with the Eastside Express in 1988 and later became head coach of the Seattle Warhawks.

He served as the defensive coordinator of the Puget Sound Jets from 1993 to 1997 and then joined the Snohomish County Vikings as defensive coordinator in 1998 and 1999. The Vikings made the playoffs both years, losing to the Jets in the championship in 1999. McMillan returned to the Jets for the 2000 and 2001 seasons. In 2003, he coached the King County Jaguars to a first-place regular season finish and the championship game where they lost to the Eastside Hawks.

“He was (a) high-powered, high energy, get the most out of your players kind of guy. It seemed he was everywhere at once,” said Broussard, who coached with McMillan when he was with the Vikings.

McMillan is a senior account executive for logistics firm Dynamex in Kent. He has two grown sons, a grown daughter and three grandchildren.

Broussard, a foreman for Kent-based Performance Heating and Air Conditioning, is married to wife, Karen, and has five children.