In 1989, he set an ACC record for receiving yards by a tight end in a single season, with 634.
[1] McGonnigal played high school football at Loyola High School where he helped the Dons end a long losing streak to archrival Calvert Hall in the annual Turkey Bowl game his senior year.
At the time of the accident, the Virginia Cavaliers football team was ranked #1 in both major polls.
Late in the game, with the Cavaliers trailing 38–35, quarterback Shawn Moore threw what would've been a go-ahead touchdown pass to new starting tight end Aaron Mundy; however, the play was overturned because a back-up tight end had not come onto the field causing there a penalty for too few players on the line of scrimmage.
[2] McGonnigal was selected in 1991 by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the ninth round, but ended up with the Cleveland Browns, where he saw little playing time and closed out his brief NFL career.