Gaines remembered for passion, drive

For many football players, taking a bribe is a bad thing.

But at 9 years old and unsure… For many football players, taking a bribe is a bad thing.

But at 9 years old and unsure if he wanted to play the sport, taking a bribe from his father turned out to be a good thing for Billy Gaines.

“I told him, if he finished the season, I’d give him a hundred dollars,” William Gaines said. “He finished the year and fell in love with [football] and played ever since.”

Billy, a 19-year-old Pitt sophomore, died Wednesday night, June 18, after suffering head and spinal injuries resulting from a 25-foot fall from a crawl space inside St. Anne Catholic Church in Homestead.

It was during that first season that William noticed that his son, who was a wide receiver and punt returner in his first season with the Panthers in 2002, had the talent to play for a long time.

At 9 years old, Billy was playing on a team with 10- and 11-year-olds and, according to his father, had no problem keeping up with them.

“I pushed him [to play football],” William said. “I could see he had talent he didn’t know he had.”

One play that stands out in William’s mind came late in that first season, when Billy fielded a muffed punt. After scooping up the ball, William recalled, Billy sprinted down the middle of the field, outrunning everyone else.

“They called it back because it was a muffed punt, but I could tell then he had something special, ” William said.

Despite playing other sports, football became Billy’s favorite. He spent a couple of years playing baseball in high school, enjoyed playing golf and even helped his basketball team win a championship, but it was on the football field that he was at his best.

As a wide receiver at Urbana High School in Maryland, Billy helped lead his team to state titles from 1998 to 2001. During his career at Urbana, the Hawks never lost a game, winning a state record 50 consecutive games. He is also the only two-time consensus All-State selection from Urbana.

In his final high school game, Billy caught the only touchdown of the game and helped Urbana hold on to win the 2001 state title, 7-6.

“It seemed like every team he was on was successful, they seemed to be good teams,” William said.

Even with his talent, it seemed that it might be difficult for Billy, who was just 5-foot-7 and 170 pounds, to achieve his goal of playing for a Division I college football program.

But after impressing Pitt head coach Walt Harris at a football camp, Harris offered the high school star a scholarship. To Harris’ surprise, Billy began to cry.

“I said, ‘Billy, what’s the matter?'” Harris told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “He said, ‘I’m not big and I thought I’d have to walk on. This is a dream come true.’ That really separated him from all the other kids we had over the years. Now what’s happened makes it even more difficult.”

“I would want people to remember him as someone who overcame a lot of obstacles to reach his goal, and that was to play Division I football,” William said. “He was a great friend, always looking out for other people.”

It was a Father’s Day gift that Billy had recently purchased that William believed was a perfect example of what kind of person his oldest son was.

“The night he died, I found out he had my Father’s Day gift in his room; it was a set of golf clubs,” William said. “He couldn’t afford them but, somehow, he found a way to buy them. That’s just the kind of son he was, and when I heard that, it hit me hard.”

Billy spent his freshman season as Pitt’s punt returner until a broken foot ended his season after 10 games. On the year, he returned 27 punts for 133 yards to go along with one reception for three yards.

Despite getting onto the field as a freshman, William said his son was disappointed with the way he played last season.

“I told him not to worry because he was the youngest guy out there,” he said. “I think he was going to be a great player. He needed time to grow.”

Billy had been using this off-season as that time, adding about 10 pounds of muscle, and he “really turned from a boy to a man,” his father said.

“He would have done some special things,” William said. “It’s tough not knowing how far he would have gone.”