Players help search for missing ex-Grand Valley State QB

Jeff Seidel | USA TODAY Sports

BALDWIN, Mich. — They searched through the woods. Through the swamps. Through dark, murky water that came up to their thighs. They looked in old abandoned cabins and trailers and behind trees and under logs, trying to solve the mystery.

Where is Cullen Finnerty?

About 100 current and former football players and coaches from Grand Valley State University searched through the thick, swampy woods northeast of Baldwin on Tuesday afternoon, looking for Finnerty, a former GVSU quarterback, who went missing while fishing on the Baldwin River on Sunday night.

"Where you at, quarterback?" screamed Tom Reuter, 41, who lives in Woodland and played football at GVSU in the 1990s.

The football players broke up and worked in small teams, stretching out, working slowly through the dense forest, focusing on 2 square miles of private and public land about 65 miles north of Grand Rapids.

Of course, these players split into teams.

Tight, cohesive units.

That's what this program is known for.

GVSU has won four NCAA Division II national titles, including three when Finnerty was the starting quarterback in 2003, '05 and '06.

"Cullen!" somebody screamed.

Finnerty, who compiled a 51-4 record in his career, played quarterback but had a linebacker's mentality. Tough. A fierce competitor. But always a lot of fun. He was a magnet in the locker room, the guy who pulled everybody together.

And he pulled in several generations of GVSU football players Tuesday morning, who came together to look for him.

"It's family," said Jeff Chaney, who played at GVSU in the 1980s. "Laker down, you have to go find him."

Chaney said that he was in a search party with several of Finnerty's family members.

"I went out with his dad, his brother and his sister," Chaney said after the search, his pants covered with mud.

Chaney choked back tears.

"It's a lot of frustration," Chaney said. "You want to know he's safe. But you don't know. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. You don't know where he went. You don't know what direction he went. You don't know if he's healthy or not healthy. It's a lot of frustration for his family and his friends. They just don't know. When you don't know, it's the worst."

***

Finnerty had spent the holiday weekend with family near Baldwin, according to his father-in-law, Dan Brink, of Muskegon.

"We had brats and hamburgers on Saturday and grilled chicken on Sunday," Brink said. "Everything was cool. It was a great weekend. We had a lot of smiles, a lot of laughs. There were no indications. There were no problems."

Brink said Finnerty decided to go fishing Sunday night.

"It was a nice night on Sunday and we thought, 'there is a nice stretch of the river,' and he got himself one of those boats and he had been practicing on it. It's a river boat, a raft."

"We were only a quarter mile from each other," Brink continued. "He ended up exactly where we told him to end up."

He called his wife Sunday night and said he was in danger, according to Lake County Sheriff Robert Hilts. And then he disappeared.

Police found his small boat but no waiters and no fishing equipment.

Hilts told reporters that family members told investigators that Finnerty "was nervous about something, and it was suspected that he might be having some kind of a mental episode."

Finnerty is 6-feet-3, 230 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. He is married and has two small children.

Police say the family has no explanation for Finnerty's disappearance.

"He phoned his wife and explained he was afraid," Hilts told reporters. "He left his equipment and ran off into the woods."

***

Kim Schmidt, the GVSU associate director of alumni relations, sent out an e-mail to all former football players Monday morning.

Asking for help.

And they rushed to Baldwin. Former players from the '70s, and '80s, and '90s, and 2000s.

Most came on their own.

But 38 current players and coaches arrived in a bus, which was donated by a company in Holland, Mich.

"The mood on the bus was anxious," GVSU head coach Matt Mitchell said Tuesday. "We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. We are coming up on 48 hours out. That's a long time. Two nights. That's a long time. We will try the best we can."

At any given time, there were more than 100 people searching in the woods, including fire fighters and volunteers from around the community.

Police searched using dogs, a helicopter and rode through the woods on ATV vehicles.

"There are close to 100 searchers out there," said Lt. J.J. White of the Michigan State Police. "We have them tagged with GPS and we are watching them move, keeping track of where they are."

When asked to describe the terrain, White said: "It's hell. Very rural. Swampy in most areas. There are a lot of bugs."

***

While some of the football players were in the woods, others waited at a staging area in the parking lot outside the North Lake Correctional Facility, a closed prison.

It looked like a tailgate before a football game. There was a table filled with foot and snacks, and current players and coaches stood around, in a strange sad reunion.

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chuck Martin, who coached at GVSU, stood in the parking lot but declined to be interviewed.

Martin and his boss, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly, are former head coaches at GVSU. Kelly told reporters on Tuesday: "It's very chilling. He led me a national championship as a true freshman (at GVSU). When I left, coach (Chuck) Martin took over and won two more national championships. My heart goes out to the family and his beautiful wife, and we're just praying and hoping and sending all of our thoughts and wishes to their family and hope that this matter is resolved in a positive way."

***

After supper time Tuesday night, another wave of players returned from the woods and then another group went out and planned to search until dark.

Most were wearing GVSU sweat shirts and T-shirts and hunting boots.

"He's a great guy," said Curt Anes, 32, who was the starting quarterback before Finnerty and led GVSU to the 2002 national title. "Always smiling. Very outgoing."

Anes was wearing a hunter orange shirt

Ready to go out and search.

"He was a great football player, but if you strip everything down, we aren't here because he was a good football player," Anes said. "He is a great person."

They searched until dark.

Where you at, quarterback?

Jeff Seidel writes for the Detroit Free Press. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.