Inductees

Paging Gary Pinkel … you are wanted by the statues … Gary Pinkel.

Indeed, had public address announcers of press boxes across the Show-Me State bellowed those words, they would have been met with applause. After all, he is the man who rode off into the sunset in 2015 as the winningest football coach in the history of the University of Missouri.

Now the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly made that honor a reality, honoring Pinkel a Missouri Sports Legend, its most elite award, during the Enshrinement in Columbia presented by Great Southern Bank on November 3, 2019.

Specially cast in bronze, a bust of Pinkel soon will line the Hall of Fame’s Legends Walkway right alongside similar bronzes of the state’s greatest names such as Stan Musial, Norm Stewart, Len Dawson and Ozzie Smith.

“I was taken aback,” Pinkel said when informed of the honor, announced by President & Executive Director Jerald Andrews in mid-September as renowned sculptor Harry Weber was creating a detailed piece of art. “I was in tears a little bit, to know that I’m going to be there with Stan Musial and all those greats. So I am deeply honored, and it is very humbling.”

Certainly, it’s deserving and comes at a time when Pinkel, despite battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, authors a new chapter in life. He and his wife, Missy, recently launched GP MADE Foundation, with the acronym standing for “Making A Difference Every-day!” It is geared toward helping kids in need.

“I kind of feel like I’m back,” Pinkel said. “I’m not coaching football, but I’m helping kids.”

This from a man who climbed the ladder from the bottom step to become one of the most respected coaches in college football.

From 2001 to 2015, Pinkel was 118-73. Beginning in 2007, his teams enjoyed five 10-win seasons and, beginning in 2003, played in 10 bowl games (6-4 record).

His Tigers also won five conference division titles in an eight-year stretch (2007-2014), and only two other teams — Alabama and Florida – could say that. Notably, his 2007 team reached a No. 1 national ranking and played for the Big 12 Championship. The Tigers also won Southeastern Conference East Division titles in 2013 and 2014.

When he retired, he ranked as the 19^th-winningest coach in NCAA Division I history, with 191 wins, including a school-best 73 wins at the University of Toledo.

In fact, Pinkel, Paul “Bear” Bryant (Kentucky, Alabama) and Steve Spurrier (Duke, Florida) are the only coaches to be the winningest coach of two different D-I programs.

Five Mizzou teams finished ranked in the Top 20, including two in the top five. Some 32 Tigers also were drafted into the NFL, including seven first-rounders.

And to think pundits – and fellow coaches – questioned why he took the Mizzou job back in 2001.

“I had a lot of friends call and say, ‘You’re crazy,’” Pinkel once said, laughing of course. “I had a lot of confidence when I came to Missouri that it was going to work. 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.”

He 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 assisted at his alma mater (1974-1975), Washington (1976) and Bowling Green (1977-1978).

At Kenmore High School in Akron, Ohio, Pinkel helped the team win its first All-City championship. At Kent State, he was an all-conference tight end and captain on a team that won the program’s only championship in school history. Teammates there included Jack Lambert and Nick Saban.

Mizzou certainly surged to prominence under Pinkel. The Tigers beat Nebraska in 2003 for the first time since 1978, kick-starting an incredible run.

“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.”

“When I came to Mizzou, my goal was building a national profile,” Pinkel added. “Fortunately, we made significant progress through the years. Yet the one thing I will always have from 39 years of coaching is a love for my players.”