Colorado Rockies President Keli McGregor was found dead Tuesday
morning in a Salt Lake City, Utah, hotel, police said.
Police
received a call shortly before 9 a.m. that a man was found unconscious
in a room at the Grand America Hotel. Medics tried to revive him, police
said.
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| Colorado Rockies President Keli McGregor, pictured in 2007, was found dead in a Salt Lake City, Utah, hotel room Tuesday. |
The cause of his death is unknown.
"Words cannot
describe the level of shock and disbelief that we all are feeling this
morning at the loss of Keli," team Chairman and CEO Charlie Monfort said
in a statement released by the team Tuesday. "Our thoughts, our prayers
are with [McGregor's wife] Lori and the entire family as we all try to
cope and understand how such a tragic loss could occur with such a
wonderful man."
Monfort said he was in Utah on a business trip
with McGregor and team Executive Vice President Greg Feasel.
McGregor,
48, had been the National League baseball team's president
since October 2001, according to the team's website.
"As
president of the Colorado Rockies, Keli was one of our game's rising
young stars. He was a great athlete and equally great as a baseball
administrator. Also, he was a great human being," Major League Baseball
Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "All of
baseball will miss him."
An online biography says McGregor began
working with the Rockies in October 1993 as senior director
of operations before being promoted to senior vice president in 1996 and
executive vice president in 1998.
McGregor joined the Rockies
after working as an associate athletic director at the University of
Arkansas for four years.
He was a two-time All-American tight end
at Colorado State University and was drafted by the Denver Broncos in
the fourth round (110th overall) of the 1985 NFL draft. He played for
Denver, Indianapolis and Seattle football teams before retiring.
He
also coached football at the University of Florida for two seasons, in
1988 and 1989.
The online biography says McGregor lived in
Golden, Colorado. He and his wife have four children.
He was born in Primghar, Iowa, and raised in Colorado.