ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - I sat on the phone with Gary Pinkel, as I did countless times during his 15-year run at Mizzou, and took notice of the elation and gratitude in his voice, unlike any other moment in his life.
Pinkel, 69 – the winningest football coach in Missouri history – recently discovered he will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December.
"It was actually very overwhelming for me for a few days, almost," Pinkel said. "There's just a lot of people that have a lot to do with being a part of this whole thing."
Pinkel retired from coaching in 2015 after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He led the Tigers to 10 bowl games, six bowl victories, five conference division titles, a No. 1 ranking and two trips to the SEC Championship game (2013-14).
Before coaching at Mizzou, he guided Toledo to 73 victories in a decade, the most by any coach in that school's history. And before that, he served as an assistant at Washington under Don James, the legendary coach for whom he played at Kent State in the early 1970's.
Pinkel's teammate at Kent State was a name you might have heard of: Nick Saban.
"I think they might let him into the Hall of Fame," Pinkel chuckled, regarding the status of Saban, the 7-time national champion at Alabama and LSU.
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Pinkel and Saban coached together at Kent State upon their graduation, with both striving to carry on the tradition of consistency they learned from James.
"Coach James is in the College Football Hall of Fame," Pinkel continued, "And I'm in there. All of that winning (at Kent State)... there are a lot of great things that happened to that team."
After three losing seasons in four years in Columbia, Pinkel's team at Mizzou picked up steam. At one point, the Tigers vaulted to No. 1 in the nation after toppling previously unbeaten Kansas in a showdown at Arrowhead Stadium in 2007.
"You really can't name a game...but you can," Pinkel said of the epic showdown that night. "The atmosphere in that game was as big an atmosphere as you're going to get at any university at any time. In that stadium, that night, we had two great football teams play. I remember saying my prayers and saying 'God, I don't know if you care who wins this or not, but I'd really like to win."
Missouri won, 36-28, only to fall a week later in the Big 12 Championship to Oklahoma. Had the Tigers defeated OU, they would have played for the national championship.
After years of success in the Big 12 with Missouri, Pinkel helped lead the transition to the Southeastern Conference in 2012, and against all odds took his team to the SEC Championship game in back-to-back seasons in 2013-14, losing to Auburn and Alabama. But it was a quick and bold arrival for a Mizzou system that was working... and now proven to work at any level.
"I think at the end of the day, that was kind of the stamp on the Don James program, the Nick Saban program, the Gary Pinkel program," Pinkel said. "It stamped it."
One of the things Pinkel embraced was his opportunity to shape young men, something he continues with his GP M.A.D.E Foundation – M.A.D.E. stands for "Making a Difference Every-Day."
"I really missed taking care of my players and helping them become better people," Pinkel said.
Now, he's in the ultimate football fraternity. Pinkel will be inducted with the 2022 class in December.
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