96.9 The Jock ESPN Radio Springfield Missouri
LAS VEGAS – Former University of Missouri football head coach Gary Pinkel was officially inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame during the 64th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 6 at the Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
He is the sixth coach from Missouri inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Pinkel is the winningest head coach in Missouri football history, winning 118 games from 2001-15 while earning two Conference Coach of the Year honors and a National Coach of the Year award in 2007. Pinkel is also the winningest coach in Toledo football history, making him one of only three coaches in college football history to hold that distinction at two Division I programs, joining Bear Bryant and Steve Spurrier.
Pinkel led Missouri to five conference division titles, three in the Big 12 and two in the SEC, and led 10 teams to bowl games. He coached 10 first-team All-Americans, three Academic All-Americans, three National Scholar-Athletes and 79 first-team all-conference players.
After his final game in 2015 and announcing his retirement because of a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Pinkel ranked as the third-winningest active coach behind future College Football Hall of Fame inductees Frank Beamer of Virginia Tech and Bill Snyder of Kansas State.
Prior to becoming a head coach, Pinkel was an all-conference and Honorable Mention All-America tight end at Kent State, playing for future College Football Hall of Fame Coach Don James. Pinkel worked as an assistant under James at Washington for 12 years, including the Huskies’ 1991 national championship team. He also served as an assistant at Kent State and Bowling Green.
Pinkel has been inducted into multiple halls of fame, including the State of Missouri Sports, St. Louis Sports Commission, Mid-American Conference, Toledo Athletics, Kent State Athletics and Kenmore High School. Active in the community, he created the GP Made Foundation to help youth facing difficult challenges and he has raised more than $10 million for charitable causes. In 2017, Pinkel released an autobiography “The 100-Yard Journey: A Life in Coaching and Battling for the Win.”
