STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Matt Suhey, the Centre County-raised fullback who carried a four-generation Penn State football name into a decade with the Chicago Bears and blocked for Walter Payton through most of it, has died. He was 68.
The Bears confirmed the death, ESPN and the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Accounts of the timing differ: ESPN reported the team confirmed Suhey died Sunday morning, while the Daily Collegian, citing the Chicago Tribune, reported he died in his sleep Saturday night. Payton’s son, Jarrett Payton, wrote Monday that Suhey “passed away yesterday.” No cause has been made public.
For Pennsylvania, the loss is a family one as much as a football one. Suhey was born July 7, 1958, in Bellefonte and played at State College Area High School. His grandfather, Bob Higgins, became Penn State’s head coach in 1930 and stayed for 19 seasons, taking the unbeaten 1947 team to the Cotton Bowl, where it tied Southern Methodist 13-13.
Suhey’s father, Steve Suhey, was the first-team All-American guard and captain of that team, and the man who answered SMU’s objection to Penn State’s Black players with, “We are Penn State. There will be no meetings.” He entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985. Brothers Larry and Paul also lettered at Penn State. Matt Suhey’s son Joe played fullback there from 2007 to 2011, and Paul’s son Kevin played from 2005 to 2007.
Suhey rushed for 2,818 yards and 26 touchdowns for the Nittany Lions from 1976 to 1979, leaving school second on the program’s career rushing list behind Lydell Mitchell. Nearly 50 years later, he is still 13th, 11 yards behind Ki-Jana Carter and ahead of Heisman winner John Cappelletti and Franco Harris.
Chicago took him in the second round in 1980. He played all 10 of his NFL seasons there, appearing in 148 regular-season games and starting 100, with 828 carries for 2,946 yards and 20 touchdowns and 260 receptions for 2,113 yards and five more scores, ESPN reported.
The signature moment came in Super Bowl XX. Suhey scored the game’s first touchdown on an 11-yard run in the first quarter and finished with 52 yards on 11 carries and a 24-yard catch as the Bears beat New England 46-10 — still the franchise’s only Super Bowl title. He had been Chicago’s second-leading rusher that 15-1 season, with 471 yards to Payton’s 1,551, according to ESPN.
His larger role was in front of Payton, whose career rushing record stood until Emmitt Smith passed it on Oct. 27, 2002. The friendship outlasted the football. Nittany Sports Now reported Suhey drove Payton to his Mayo Clinic appointments after Payton’s 1998 bile duct cancer diagnosis. Payton was godfather to Suhey’s youngest son, Scott, and made Suhey the executor of his estate before his death in 1999 — a job that, The Athletic reported in 2024, also put Suhey in charge of Payton’s name, image, and likeness rights, 25 years on.
Jarrett Payton, in a post Monday, described what that meant in practice.
“After we lost my dad in 1999, Matt became the biggest father figure I had,” he wrote. “My dad left him in charge and Matt never let that responsibility sit lightly. He protected our family. He looked after us. He made sure we were okay, year after year, without ever making it about himself.”
Penn State football posted a photo tribute reading “Forever a Nittany Lion. Rest in peace, Matt Suhey.” Kevin Gallagher, who posts Bears history, put up a video Monday of the longest play of Suhey’s career, a 58-yard catch-and-run he made 40 years earlier today.
The Bears’ newsroom carried no statement from team leadership as of Monday afternoon. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.