Cal alumnus and football star running back Chuck Muncie died recently at age 60 from a heart condition. Essentially all of the national media coverage of this story has conflated his seemingly early death with his use of cocaine many years earlier. So far, perhaps none of the media coverage of this story has mentioned that heart disease has devastated his family. Muncie, the youngest of six children, had three brothers and two sisters. His brother Bill died in 2002 at age 60 from a heart attack. His brother Nelson died in 2009 at age 61 from a heart condition. An obituary notice for Nelson mentions that brother George had already died, presumably young as well, without mentioning a specific cause.
— Ivan Smason,
University of New Mexico postdoctoral scholar