The car accident that claimed the life of Dee Dowis was tragic in and of itself. This development only adds to it.
In late August, the former Air Force quarterback was killed almost instantly in a car wreck in Georgia. Three months later, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports, citing a medical examiner’s report, is reporting that Dowis’ blood-alcohol levels following the 5 a.m. ET crash were .21 and .233. The legal limit in the state is .08 percent.
Dowis was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident, and the official cause of death is listed as blunt-force trauma to the left side of his chest.
From the Gazette’s report of the events leading up to the accident:
Dowis came to the Falcons as a 150-pound quarterback in the mid-eighties and left as the academy’s all-time leading rusher with 3,612 yards rushing, a record that still remains. His sixth-place finish in the 1989 Heisman Trophy voting is the highest finish ever for a Falcon, and made him one of three service academy players to finish that high in the voting since Roger Staubach of Navy took home the honor in 1963.
The season that led to that finish, 1,286 yards rushing and 1,285 passing, marked just the fifth time at the time a player had topped 1,000 yards both passing and rushing in the same season. In 2009, Dowis was a member of the second class inducted into the Air Force Athletic Hall of Fame.
Dowis was 48 years old at the time of the wreck, and is survived by his wife Tracie and two children.