Born and raised in Battle Creek, Michigan, McGee played college football at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. In his junior season was off to a ranked #16 in the and appeared headed for a fourth straight conference title. But on Friday, October 17, the day before the home game against BYU, McGee and thirteen other African American players went to head coach office to discuss how they might participate in a protest called by the UW Black Students Alliance against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tenet which prohibited black men from becoming priests. As soon as Eaton saw them wearing black arm bands, he took them into the Memorial Fieldhouse bleachers and immediately informed them they were all off the team because they violated the coach's rule against participating