[1] McDowell was born in Cross City, Florida,[2] and at birth the doctors found his leg bones to be too soft to correctly sustain his body, and they had him use braces in order to move: the physicians predicted that he would not be able to walk without them.

[3] He attended Dixie County High School, where he was a first team all-state selection in his junior and senior year: he was considered by several scouts to be the best player in the state of Florida.

[4] His successful senior season earned him a selection in the Parade All-America Third Team and he was named a McDonald's All-American.

[6] Coach Norm Sloan regarded McDowell as a promising player who could help the team with his ability to score in the paint.

[13] McDowell was the top shot blocker of his team, and the second scorer and rebounder behind Ronnie Williams[14] The Gators finished last in the SEC for the second year in a row with a 5–13 conference record.

After his final college season McDowell was automatically eligible for the 1985 NBA draft: the Milwaukee Bucks selected him with the 21st pick of the 3rd round (68th overall).

His good performance with Zaragoza was noticed by Aito Garcia Reneses, the coach of one of Spain's top teams, Barcelona, which signed him for the following season.

[24] The following year he played for the Birmingham Bandits, and in the regular season he appeared in 32 games, averaging 26.9 minutes, 7.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 0.4 blocks.

[25] In the early morning hours of August 25, 1995, the police responded to a call reporting an unconscious person in the bathroom of Puzzles, a club in Casselberry, Florida.

[9] His death was initially linked to drug abuse, but later on Shashi Gore, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on his body, declared that there was no drug in McDowell's system, and that his death was due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition which developed from preexistent heart problems (McDowell had been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in 1983 and was prescribed medication for it, but stopped taking it around 1986).