GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Michigan Tech football legend Jim Van Wagner passed away Nov. 29 in Grants Pass, Oregon at age 59 due to respiratory and heart failure related to Alzheimer’s-related dementia.

Van Wagner, a running back, arrived at Michigan Tech in 1973 and immediately began making marks in the record books. He continues to hold the school record for career rushing yards (4,788) and is one of only two Tech backs to score six rush touchdowns in a game.

At the time of his graduation, he also held records for rushing yards in a game (286) and a season (1,453).

During his senior season, 1976, he received several honors, including All-America and Academic All-America recognition.

He was drafted in the seventh round of the 1977 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers, eventually playing briefly for the New Orleans Saints for two seasons. After suffering a career-ending knee injury, he returned to Michigan Tech as an assistant football coach and head track coach from 1980-82.

His family believes head collisions from his football career contributed to the onset of the Alzheimer’s.

Since then, Van Wagner studied medicine at Michigan State College of Osteopathic Medicine, later serving the Traverse City area as an orthopedic surgeon for 20 years.

He assisted in efforts to reestablish and make the Michigan Tech football program self-sustaining after it was temporarily terminated in 2003, raised funds for public television and lent his medical skills to local schools.

He was inducted into the Michigan Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.

He is survived by his wife, and four children from a previous marriage, including Mike, a Michigan Tech hockey player from 2005-10.