'Person you could always count on.' Cathedral's McCullough takes inspiration from brother

INDIANAPOLIS – The meaning of the No. 2 jersey is not lost on the players who suit up each year for the Cathedral football team.

Six years ago, Mario McCullough would have been a senior on the Cathedral football team. He was a hard-hitting, fearless defensive back. Undersized at 5-foot-7. But he packed a wallop.

“Built like Bob Sanders,” Cathedral coach Bill Peebles said of McCullough. “He was probably going to play safety in college.”

But McCullough never got the chance. He was a junior in high school in late March of 2020, the early weeks of the pandemic, when he was shot and killed in a triple shooting on North Emerson Avenue, not far from his home. He was just 17.

The following season, in what would have been McCullough’s senior year, Cathedral’s seniors carried McCullough’s No. 2 jersey to midfield with them before each game. Before the Irish won the Class 5A state championship at Lucas Oil Stadium in November, Peebles had the team bus stop along that stretch of road on North Emerson Avenue, where the team started its pregame ritual of praying the rosary.

“He was a person you could always count on,” said Telli McCullough, Mario’s younger brother. “Who will always be there for you.”

Telli, six years younger than Mario, wanted to be his big brother’s manager. Back then, Telli played on the offensive and defensive lines for his teams. “I hated it so much,” Telli said with a smile.

In the weeks and months after Mario passed away, Telli could not bring himself to look at any pictures of his brother. Doing so would bring him to tears.

“I would just start crying,” he said. “So, I just kind of stopped thinking about it.”

Not that he ever stopped thinking about his brother. Neither did the Cathedral football program. The year after Mario’s senior class graduated, Peebles brought back the No. 2 jersey to the regular rotation. But it came with a unique designation.

“The senior captains talk about who they think deserves it and the coaches meet and talk about it and make a decision toward the end of the summer,” Peebles said. “Then we ask, ‘Do you want to be No. 2?’”

No one has turned it down. Jeff Utzinger, a linebacker who is now a fifth-year senior at Indiana, wore it that first season in 2021.

“I’m blessed to be given the opportunity to represent him,” Utzinger said of McCullough at the time. “He was the hardest worker I knew, and he represents everything you want in a football player. I’m extremely blessed to be wearing his number this year.”

The tradition has continued. Marcus Shannon, a senior linebacker, wears No. 2 this season. “It will continue as long as I’m here,” Peebles said.

There is an obvious choice for next year.

Telli has grown into a different player than the kid who played on the line. He is now a hard-hitting junior running back who has forced his way into the rotation with senior Xavier Dangerfield. Cathedral has gone to a two-back set for the first time in Peebles’ nine-year tenure in order to get both players on the field.

Through five games, Dangerfield (436 rushing yards, four TDs) and McCullough (230 rushing yards, three TDs) have combined to give the 5A third-ranked Irish a dynamic duo at the position, averaging 5.2 yards per carry.

“We train together throughout the whole season,” McCullough said of his friendship with Dangerfield. “He helps me with plays and other small stuff. He was really the first person to help me when I came in. After my freshman year going into my sophomore year, he was the main person I talked to.”

Peebles said he could see McCullough’s confidence grow through the summer as he became a stronger, quicker runner.

“I could see it coming in the weight room,” Peebles said. “You can see when somebody is not in this environment and then is in this environment for a year or two and all of a sudden they see, ‘Hey, if I do the things I need to do, there’s a future for me.’ He has a future beyond Cathedral football.”

Mario did, too, of course. He never got a chance show it. In his college essay, written just five days before he died, Mario wrote about what the No. 2 jersey meant to him.

“When you think of or see the number 2, what is it you think of? To you it might be the number of times it took you to pass your test or how many years it took to save money for a car. To me it is my football number that I wear at Cathedral High School. This is my grandmother’s favorite number and she is who I do what I do for, along with the rest of my family. I want the number 2 to make people think of me. Want people to know my mark that I will leave on the school itself. I want my name to be remembered in a positive way, to be used as an example for others in the future.”

In the football locker room at Cathedral, there is a whiteboard with the words “Play for ‘2.’” Angel wings surround the ‘2.’ There is also a portrait of McCullough, alongside other Cathedral football players who died while in high school: No. 44 John Bissmeyer, who died from a viral infection in his heart in 2002; No. 81 Bobby Gray, who died in 1999 from bone cancer; No. 66 Scott Altherr, a team captain who died in a car accident in 1985; and Jeramy Schmitt, who died in 2005 after he collapsed at practice.

Telli, who wears No. 21, was “just trying to perform” when he started his junior season. But after getting off to a good start, he has individual goals of rushing for 800 yards and 10 touchdowns, five 20-plus yard plays and 6 yards per carry and the team goal of a 5A state title. And another big one off on the horizon:

To wear No. 2 next season.

“It would mean a lot,” Telli said, “to be able to carry on his legacy.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.Get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 'Person you could always count on.' Cathedral's McCullough takes inspiration from brother