Super Bowl champ Doug Collie shares message about daughter’s tragic airshow death
Former NFL offensive lineman Bruce Collie and his family are being lifted up by those closest to them.
The two-time Super Bowl champion lost his eldest daughter, Devyn Reiley, on Saturday after her plane, as part of the AirVenture Oshkosh airshow, crashed into Lake Winnebago minutes after takeoff.
Collie posted Monday on Facebook a message he received from a friend who said Devyn was “always professional, hard working, respectful and with such a beautiful smile.”
“From our Friend Amalia Molly Forina. Thank you Molly…” Collie wrote.
Forina recalled meeting the family when Collie’s wife, Holly, was pregnant with the couple’s 12th child and Devyn, the oldest of 13, worked behind the bar with her dad.
“I remember when Devyn authored her first book, so young and so accomplished,” Forina continued.
“With this family, you cannot help but celebrate and share their pride and joy in all their milestones and accomplishments, and now, their heartbreak and loss.”
Reiley, 30, became a certified pilot in 2017 and was flying a World War II-era T-6 Texan with her co-pilot Zach Colliemoreno, 20, when the accident occurred.
“She was the older sister that was the one, everybody looked up to her,” Devyn’s younger sister Calyn Collie told the San Antonio Express. “Her love of aviation was always so evident from a young age.”
The vintage aircraft reportedly reached 3,900 feet before plunging into the lake.
The U.S. Coast Guard recovered both the pilots’ bodies Saturday evening after beginning its search that afternoon.
An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the crash.
“As a parent, I cannot imagine the unfathomable loss of a child, as a Christian, I know she is in God’s arms; and I know the Collies have a very strong faith,” Forina wrote.
“Please pray for the Collie and Reiley families, for Hunter and Devyn’s aviator community. Rest in peace beautiful girl.”
Collie was drafted by San Francisco in 1985 and won Super Bowls with the team in 1989 and 1990 before retiring following the 1991 season.
