Years ago, before the trips to bowl games became routine and the No. 1 national ranking was bestowed on the Mizzou Tigers football program, the phone calls took Gary Pinkel by surprise when he initially took the job.
“I had a lot of friends call and say, ‘You’re crazy,” Pinkel said.
No, Pinkel had a vision to turn Mizzou football into a player on the national stage. Now, 15 seasons after he succeeded in one of college football’s biggest turnarounds, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to induct Pinkel among its Class of 2016. Enshrinement Ceremonies presented by Killian Construction are Sunday, January 31 in Springfield. For tickets, call 417-889-3100, and see below for specific details).
Pinkel became the winningest coach in Mizzou history from 2001 to 2015, compiling an 118-73 record. His teams enjoyed five 10-win seasons beginning in 2007 and played in 10 bowl games (6-4 record) beginning in 2003 and won conference division titles five times in an eight-year period between 2007 and 2014. That stretch tied Alabama and Florida State – the only other schools that can boast of such similar success. Pinkel’s teams played for the Big 12 Championship in 2007, when the Tigers reached a No. 1 national ranking, and won Southeastern Conference East Division titles in 2013 and 2014.
With his school-best 73 wins at the University of Toledo (1991-2000), Pinkel retired in 2015 as the 20th winningest coach in college football history with 191 wins. After his final game in 2015, he was the third-winningest active coach behind Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer and Kansas State’s Bill Snyder. Pinkel also is one of only three coaches in history to be the winningest coach of two college football programs, joining Bear Bryant (Kentucky, Alabama) and Steve Spurrier (Florida, South Carolina).
Five Mizzou teams finished ranked in the Top 20, including two in the top five. The NFL also drafted 32 Tigers in the Pinkel era, including seven first-rounders.
In other words, Pinkel completely changed Mizzou’s narrative. Mizzou had only two winning seasons in the 17 years before then-athletic director Mike Alden hired him.
“I had a lot of confidence when I came to Missouri that it was going to work,” Pinkel said. “At the press conference, I said, ‘We’re going to build a program, and it’s going to be respected, not only within the Big 12 Conference but nationally.”
Pinkel knew how to build a winner. Besides leading Toledo in the Mid-American Conference, he mentored under University of Washington coach Don James from 1979 to 1990 as the Huskies won 104 games and three Pac-10 Conference championships. Pinkel also helped lay the groundwork to the Huskies’ 1991 co-national championship. A Kent State University graduate who played for James, Pinkel also was an assistant at his alma mater (1974-1975), Washington (1976) and Bowling Green (1977-1978).
“The hardest thing to do was to teach the kids how to win,” Pinkel said of his early Mizzou days. “It mainly was attention to detail and teaching players how to react to winning and losing. It’s building a culture.”
Pinkel’s recruiting philosophy was ambitious – build a program with in-state recruits making up 90 percent of the roster, and target one other state. In this case, Pinkel zeroed in on talent-rich Texas. The strategy fueled Mizzou’s success.
But the first notable recruit, quarterback Brad Smith, came from Ohio. “We needed somebody to help us, and God gave us Brad Smith,” Pinkel said. “We then started winning some big games.” The Smith-led 2003 team beat Nebraska for Mizzou’s first win against the Huskers since 1976 and kick-started Mizzou’s bowl trips.
The 2007 team, led by quarterback Chase Daniel and receiver Jeremy Maclin, rose to a No. 1 national ranking – the first in school history – as the Tigers beat rival Kansas 36-17 for the Big 12 Conference North Division in sold-out Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. “It was like a bowl game with 75,000 to 85,000 standing and it was 10 degrees,” Pinkel said.
Mizzou also beat Oklahoma 36-27 in 2010.
“Our goal was always to do the same every year,” said Pinkel, whose teams won the 2008 and 2014 Cotton Bowl against Arkansas and Oklahoma State, respectively, and added a Citrus Bowl win in 2015. “The thing I tried to emphasize to our players was, ‘It’s about us.’ We certainly have to recognize the tendencies of our opponents. But the preparation into going into every season began right after the bowl game and in June. You didn’t waste a day.”
Pinkel was also the Coach of the Year in the MAC (1995), Big 12 (2007) and SEC (2014).
“You have to have a passion when you work with 127 kids, Pinkel said. “When I came to Mizzou, my goal was building a national program. Fortunately, we made significant progress through the years. Yet the one thing I will always have from 39 years of coaching is love for my players.”
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Enshrinement Ceremonies 2016 presented by Killian Construction
What: Missouri Sports Hall of Fame Enshrinement
When: 11 a.m. reception presented by Meeks The Builder’s Choice at the Hall of Fame, 3861 E. Stan Musial Drive; 4 p.m. reception & 5 p.m. dinner & event on Jan. 31
Where: University Plaza Hotel & Convention Center
Missouri Sports Legend: University of Central Missouri athletic director Jerry Hughes
Class of 2016: Mizzou Tigers football coach Gary Pinkel; former big-league pitcher Jerry Reuss, longtime NFL coach Gregg Williams, Springfield native and retired PBR bull rider L.J. Jenkins, Kansas City Chiefs center Tim Grunhard, St. Joseph native and Olympic gymnastics silver medalist Terin Humphrey, Kansas City native and St. Louis Cardinals linebacker Eric Williams, longtime Kansas City Royals scouting director Art Stewart, Evangel University men’s basketball coach Steve Jenkins, West Plains native and former Texas Christian University baseball coach Lance Brown, former University of Missouri and Olympic track and field standout Natasha Kaiser-Brown, Missouri Southern men’s basketball coach Robert Corn, St. Louis University High School racquetball coach Joe Koestner, Missouri State University sports information director Mark Stillwell, John Burroughs High School football coach Jim Lemen, The John Burroughs School football program and the Mizzou Tigers’ 1966 Sugar Bowl team. The John Q. Hammons Founder’s Award will go to Med-Pay, Inc., owned by Gordon and Marshall Kinne, and Ken Meyer of Meyer Communications is the recipient of the President’s Award.
For Tickets, Call 417-889-3100: Tickets are $150. Tables of 10 are $1,500 and include associate sponsor recognition in the printed program and autographed prints. Sponsorship opportunities such as congratulatory ads also are available.
