Appalachian Figures
Gridiron Glory on a Garrett County Shore
When most people scan the long lists of “notable people from Garrett County, Maryland,” they expect names tied to timber, railroads, or the ski slopes at Wisp. Tucked among them is a different kind of figure. Brendan Barrett McCarthy was born in Boston in 1945, made his name on Catholic school fields around Washington, became a star fullback at Boston College, took a brief turn in the National Football League, and then helped shape the modern Washington commercial real estate market. He died in 1997 of a heart attack at his vacation home on Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County, a final chapter that permanently tied his story to Maryland’s westernmost county.
For Garrett County, McCarthy is a reminder that the mountains are not just a backdrop for local stories. They are also a retreat and sometimes a last resting place for people whose lives played out in Boston, Bethesda, and boardrooms around the capital.
From Boston Birth Certificate to Washington Suburbs
Genealogical indexes give us the tidy outline that any historian loves. Brendan Barrett McCarthy was born on 6 August 1945 in Boston, Massachusetts, to William Joseph McCarthy and his wife, whose name appears in some records but not all. Social Security and death index compilations agree that he died on 26 August 1997 at age fifty two, with the place of death listed in Garrett County, Maryland.
The biographical sketch becomes clearer when we move from indexes to contemporary reporting. A Washington Post obituary described him as a real estate executive and former professional football player who had been a standout athlete at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, and played in the NFL in the late nineteen sixties. It notes that he died of a heart attack at his vacation home at Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, and that his longtime residence was in Darnestown, a Montgomery County suburb northwest of Washington.
In other words, McCarthy was a Boston born son of Irish Catholic New England whose formative years and adult life unfolded in the orbit of Washington, D.C. Both of those worlds would eventually follow him to Garrett County, at least on paper.
DeMatha Catholic: The First Two Time All American
If Boston supplied his birth certificate, DeMatha Catholic High School supplied his legend. Located in Hyattsville, just outside the District, DeMatha emerged in the mid twentieth century as a national powerhouse in Catholic high school athletics. McCarthy enrolled there in the early nineteen sixties and became, in the school’s own telling, the first two time All American in DeMatha history. The school’s activities center was later renamed the McCarthy Activities Center in his memory, a brick and mortar sign of how firmly his name was woven into the DeMatha story.
DeMatha social media posts and alumni notes remember him not only as a dominant football player but as part of a remarkable class that sent multiple athletes to the NFL. One DeMatha photo caption pairs McCarthy with classmate Garrett Ford, noting that they were the first Stags ever taken in the pro draft in 1968, a milestone for a program that would later send yet more players into the league.
Those teenage years at DeMatha also matter for our Appalachian story. Many DeMatha families already treated western Maryland as a summer refuge long before Deep Creek Lake exploded as a four season resort. By the time McCarthy was wearing DeMatha’s red and blue, Garrett County cabins and lakeside lots were already starting to knit suburban Maryland to the Appalachian plateau.
A Bruising Eagle at Boston College
From Hyattsville McCarthy went north to Boston College. There he became exactly the sort of back that New England sportswriters loved to describe. Sports Illustrated, previewing the Eagles in 1966, singled him out as the best of a strong backfield and praised his ability to run effectively both inside and outside while piling up yards as a sophomore.
Boston College’s Varsity Club Hall of Fame entry remembers him as a “bruising fullback” who led the Eagles in rushing yardage in each of his three varsity seasons and whose roughly two thousand career rushing yards placed him among the program’s all time ground gainers. He also claimed the O’Melia Award in 1965 as the outstanding player in that year’s win over rival Holy Cross, then still one of New England’s fiercest Catholic college rivalries.
By the time he graduated with the class of 1968, McCarthy had helped Boston College sustain its reputation as a tough, run heavy team that liked to send big backs crashing between the tackles. The Varsity Club inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1988, a recognition that fixed his name in the school’s football memory.
Short Yardage in the Pros
The 1968 common draft brought McCarthy into the professional ranks. He was selected in the fourth round with the ninety second overall pick by the Green Bay Packers, then reigning champions of professional football.
That summer the Packers traded him to the Detroit Lions, a move covered in a Washington Post sports story titled “Lions Acquire McCarthy to Fill In for Eddy,” which cast him as depth insurance at running back. He spent part of the season with Detroit before moving on to the Atlanta Falcons, where he appeared in seven games before being released by coach Norm Van Brocklin. Later he landed with the Denver Broncos, playing in nine games over the 1968 and 1969 seasons.
Modern statistical compilations, drawn from original game books and box scores, credit McCarthy with fifteen NFL and AFL games played, 175 rushing yards, and one rushing touchdown, numbers that underscore how brief and rugged life could be for a power back trying to carve out a role in late sixties pro football.
Those seasons did not produce Pro Bowl honors or a long career, but they did give him a foothold in Washington’s sporting memory. Later tributes by real estate colleagues would often mention, almost in the same breath, his years as a Boston College star and his time in the league.
From Locker Room to Boardroom: Building Modern Washington
When McCarthy’s football years ended, he did what many former players with Washington connections did. He went downtown to sell office space.
The Washington Post obituary notes that before joining Carey Winston, he worked as a leasing agent in commercial office brokerage with Shannon and Luchs, a firm that helped broker the region’s late twentieth century boom.
In 1973 he moved to Carey Winston, a Bethesda based commercial real estate services company founded during the Second World War. By the mid nineteen nineties a federal securities filing prepared during a planned merger described Carey Winston as the leading provider of commercial real estate brokerage services and the largest third party property manager in the Washington, Baltimore, and Northern Virginia market.
That same filing gave McCarthy’s official corporate biography. It recorded that, by age fifty one, he was serving as co chairman of the Carey Winston board, after previously holding the titles of director and executive vice president. The 1997 Washington Post obituary filled in the timeline, noting that he joined Carey Winston in 1973, became a senior vice president in 1988, was named director and executive vice president in 1990, and rose to co chairman of the board in 1995.
Put differently, the hard running fullback from Boston College spent nearly a quarter century helping to shape the region’s office market. By the time of his death, Carey Winston had become part of what is now Transwestern’s Washington operation, and McCarthy’s name was part of the corporate genealogy of many buildings in and around the capital.
Deep Creek Lake: A Washington Man’s Mountain Refuge
The heart attack that ended McCarthy’s life struck at a place that many Washington area residents know well. Deep Creek Lake, straddling the northern part of Garrett County, is Maryland’s largest inland body of water. Created in the nineteen twenties when a hydroelectric company dammed Deep Creek, it covers roughly 3,900 acres and boasts around sixty five to sixty nine miles of shoreline.
Travel writers and state agencies alike describe it as a four season playground. In the warm months, visitors boat, fish, and swim under the cool plateau sky. In winter, Wisp Resort’s ski slopes rise above the lake, giving Washington and Baltimore families a mountain alternative to coastal beaches.
Garrett County itself is a relatively young county. Created in 1872 out of Allegany County, it was the last county formed in Maryland and was named for John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the very company that helped open the region to tourism. Oakland, its county seat, sits a short drive south of Deep Creek Lake.
By the late twentieth century, Deep Creek Lake had become deeply woven into the recreational life of Montgomery County and the wider D.C. suburbs. McCarthy was one of many suburban professionals who purchased a vacation home there, trading the Beltway for a mountain shoreline on weekends. It was at that lakeside home that he suffered a fatal heart attack on 26 August 1997.
Genealogical compilations sometimes list his place of death as Oakland, a reflection of how death certificates often record the town where a hospital, funeral home, or county seat is located. Contemporary reporting and later sports encyclopedias, however, consistently place his death at his Deep Creek Lake vacation home and describe the location more broadly as Garrett County.
This is why modern reference works and category lists include McCarthy under “people from Garrett County, Maryland.” His strongest everyday ties were to Boston, Hyattsville, and Darnestown, yet his final hours and his vacation home placed his name permanently along the shores of an Appalachian reservoir.
Memory in the Mountains and the City
In the years after his death, McCarthy’s name remained active in three communities.
At DeMatha Catholic High School, the McCarthy Activities Center keeps his memory in daily circulation among students who may never have seen him play. The building’s naming and related memorial funds highlight him as a model alumnus, both for his athletic achievements and his later professional success.
At Boston College, his bronze colored Hall of Fame plaque places him among the greatest backs in program history, cited for his three straight seasons leading the Eagles in rushing and his role in some of the school’s biggest mid sixties wins.
In Washington real estate circles, the Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Association of Greater Washington (CREBA) inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2016, nearly two decades after his death. Transwestern announcements described him as a former executive whose leadership left a strong mark on the firm, while a Bisnow report on CREBA’s inaugural Hall of Fame class highlighted McCarthy as co chairman of Carey Winston and a former NFL player. CREBA also created the Brendan McCarthy Memorial Award, given annually to professionals who combine business achievement with generosity and community service.
These overlapping memorials mean that a visitor who Googles his name from a cabin at Deep Creek might find, in quick succession, a Boston College Hall of Fame profile, a Washington Post obituary, a Garrett County category listing, and a CREBA awards page. Taken together, they trace the arc of an American life that ran from Catholic school fields to the thin air of Denver, across the conference rooms of Bethesda, and finally up into the Appalachian headwaters of Maryland.
For Appalachian historians, McCarthy’s story is a reminder that the region’s modern past cannot be told only through coal seams, timber leases, and rural town councils. Sometimes it runs along interstate highways and power lines, then circles back to a mountain lake where a Washington executive came to fish, relax, and, in the end, take his last breath.
Sources and Further Reading
Louie Estrada, “Real Estate Executive Brendan McCarthy Dies,” Washington Post, 28 August 1997. The Washington Post+1
“Lions Acquire McCarthy to Fill In for Eddy,” Washington Post, 17 August 1968. Wikipedia+1
“Brendan McCarthy” entry, Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Fame. Boston College Athletics+1
Trident Rowan Group, Inc., Registration Statement on Form S 4, description of Carey Winston management. SEC+1Social Security and vital record indexes for “MCCARTHY, BRENDAN B,” and Ancestry compiled index entries for “Brendan Barrett McCarthy.” Sorted By Name+1
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Deep Creek Lake Natural Resources Management Area page. Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Maryland Secretary of State, “Garrett County” county history page. Maryland Secretary of State+1
“Brendan McCarthy (American football),” English and Arabic language Wikipedia entries. Wikipedia+2Wikipedia+2
“Brendan McCarthy,” American Football Database. American Football Database
Pro Football Reference and Sports Reference statistical pages for Brendan McCarthy. Pro Football Reference
CREBA, Hall of Fame and Brendan McCarthy Memorial Award pages, plus Bisnow coverage of the 2016 Hall of Fame class. 2020aa+4Creba+4citybuzz+4
VisitDeepCreek.com “Fast Facts About Deep Creek Lake” and related regional tourism materials. Garrett County Chamber of Commerce+2WorldAtlas+2