IRVING, Texas (Sept. 27, 2022) – The University of Missouri and The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame announced today that they will jointly honor 2022 College Football Hall of Fame electee Coach Gary Pinkel with an NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute, presented by Fidelity Investments®. The Salute will take place this Saturday, Oct. 1, during the Tigers’ home football game against Georgia. Coverage of the game will start at 6:30 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
The NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute program, which began with the inaugural College Football Hall of Fame Class in 1951, has become a hallowed tradition, and to this day the singular events remain the first of numerous activities in the Hall of Fame experience.
During the NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salutes, each electee returns to his respective school to accept a Hall of Fame plaque that will stay on permanent display at the institution. The events take place on the field during a home game, and many Hall of Famers cite the experience as the ultimate capstone to their careers, providing them one more chance to take the field and be recognized in front of their home crowd.
The 2022 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be officially inducted during the 64th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 6 at the Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Click herefor more information on the Awards Dinner, including options to purchase tickets online, special travel rates to the event from Delta Air Lines and Bellagio and a concierge service provided by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
“Coach Gary Pinkel transformed Missouri into a perennial winner, and he boasts the most victories in school history,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “We are thrilled to honor him at Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field.”
Standing at No. 20 for most wins in Football Bowl Subdivision history at the time of his retirement, Pinkel's legacy as the winningest coach in school history at both Toledo and Missouri makes him one of only three coaches to hold the distinction at two Division I programs.
Pinkel took over at Missouri in 2001, inheriting a program that had produced just one 10-win season in school history and two winning seasons in the previous 17 years. Pinkel would transform the program, leading the Tigers to 10 winning seasons (including five years with 10 wins or more), five conference division titles, 10 bowl appearances and six bowl victories.
The end result: an overall record of 118-73 and the distinction of being the school's all-time winningest coach.
Pinkel's Missouri teams posted final top-20 national rankings five times, including AP rankings of No. 4 in 2007 and No. 5 in 2013. In 2007, he was named the National Coach of the Year by FieldTurf, and he won conference coach of the year honors in 2007 (Big 12) and 2014 (SEC).
In 2007, Mizzou claimed the school's first No. 1 national ranking since 1960 after a watershed 36-17 win against archrival Kansas in the Border Showdown at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 24, 2007. The Tigers subsequently fell short against Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game, but the team ended the season with a school-record 12 wins, including a win in the Cotton Bowl and a No. 4 final national ranking.
Pinkel's finest year may have come in 2013, one year after Mizzou joined the SEC. Picked to finish sixth in the SEC Eastern Division, the Tigers finished 11-1 as East Division champs, and they gave Pinkel his second victory in the Cotton Bowl and his second 12-win season along with a final No. 5 ranking in the national polls.
Pinkel would lead the Tigers back to the SEC Championship Game in 2014, falling short against Alabama. The team finished the season with a win against Minnesota in the Citrus Bowl and an 11-3 record and No. 14 ranking in the AP Poll.
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.
Pinkel also is one of only three coaches in history to be the winningest coach of two college football programs, joining College Football Hall of Fame inductees Bear Bryant (Kentucky, Alabama) and Steve Spurrier (Florida, South Carolina). Pinkel coached 10 First Team All-Americans, three Academic All-Americans, three NFF National Scholar-Athletes and 79 first team all-conference players.
Pinkel began his head coaching career at Toledo in 1991 and during the next 10 years he would take the Rockets to new heights, winning 65.9 percent of his games and amassing a 73-37-3 record, the most wins in school history. His nine winning seasons at Toledo included the 1995 MAC championship, with the Rockets going 11-0-1 and finishing at No. 24 in the final polls. Pinkel would lead Toledo to three other MAC West Division titles.
In 1997, the Rockets finished 9-3, climbing as high as No. 18 in the national rankings. They repeated as division champions again in 1998 with a 7-5 record. In his final season with the Rockets in 2000, the team went 10-1, including a 24-6 win at Penn State. The team finished the regular season with the MAC West Division title and ranked No. 25 in the AP Poll. He was named the MAC Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1997.
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."
Pinkel becomes the sixth Missouri coach to enter the College Football Hall of Fame, joining Frank Broyles (1957), Dan Devine (1958-70), Don Faurot (1935-42, 1946-56), Jim Phelan (1920-21) and Bill Roper (1909).
Seven former Tiger players are also in the Hall: Paul Christman (1938-40), Darold Jenkins (1939-41), Johnny Roland (1962, 1964-65), Bob Steuber (1940-43), Ed Travis (1916-17, 1919-20), Roger Wehrli (1966-68) and Kellen Winslow (1975-78).
The 2022 College Football Hall of Fame Class includes LaVar Arrington (Penn State), Champ Bailey (Georgia), Michael Crabtree (Texas Tech), Sylvester Croom (Alabama), Mike Doss (Ohio State), Chuck Ealey (Toledo), Kevin Faulk (LSU), Moe Gardner (Illinois), Boomer Grigsby (Illinois State), Mike Hass (Oregon State), Marvin Jones (Florida State), Andrew Luck (Stanford), Mark Messner (Michigan), Terry Miller (Oklahoma State), Rashaan Salaam (Colorado), Dennis Thomas (Alcorn State), Zach Wiegert (Nebraska), Roy Williams (Oklahoma) and coaches John Luckhardt (Washington & Jefferson [PA], California [PA]), Billy Jack Murphy (Memphis) and Gary Pinkel (Toledo, Missouri).
The accomplishments of the 2022 Class will be forever immortalized at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, and each inductee will receive a custom ring created by Jostens, the official and exclusive supplier of NFF rings.
Including the 2022 Hall of Fame Class, only 1,056 players and 226 coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame from the nearly 5.62 million who have played or coached the game during the past 153 years. In other words, less than two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%) of the individuals who have played the game have earned this distinction.
The NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute program, which began with the inaugural College Football Hall of Fame Class in 1951, has become a hallowed tradition, and to this day the singular events remain the first of numerous activities in the Hall of Fame experience.
During the NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salutes, each electee returns to his respective school to accept a Hall of Fame plaque that will stay on permanent display at the institution. The events take place on the field during a home game, and many Hall of Famers cite the experience as the ultimate capstone to their careers, providing them one more chance to take the field and be recognized in front of their home crowd.
The 2022 College Football Hall of Fame Class will be officially inducted during the 64th NFF Annual Awards Dinner Presented by Las Vegas on Dec. 6 at the Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Click herefor more information on the Awards Dinner, including options to purchase tickets online, special travel rates to the event from Delta Air Lines and Bellagio and a concierge service provided by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
“Coach Gary Pinkel transformed Missouri into a perennial winner, and he boasts the most victories in school history,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “We are thrilled to honor him at Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field.”
Standing at No. 20 for most wins in Football Bowl Subdivision history at the time of his retirement, Pinkel's legacy as the winningest coach in school history at both Toledo and Missouri makes him one of only three coaches to hold the distinction at two Division I programs.
Pinkel took over at Missouri in 2001, inheriting a program that had produced just one 10-win season in school history and two winning seasons in the previous 17 years. Pinkel would transform the program, leading the Tigers to 10 winning seasons (including five years with 10 wins or more), five conference division titles, 10 bowl appearances and six bowl victories.
The end result: an overall record of 118-73 and the distinction of being the school's all-time winningest coach.
Pinkel's Missouri teams posted final top-20 national rankings five times, including AP rankings of No. 4 in 2007 and No. 5 in 2013. In 2007, he was named the National Coach of the Year by FieldTurf, and he won conference coach of the year honors in 2007 (Big 12) and 2014 (SEC).
In 2007, Mizzou claimed the school's first No. 1 national ranking since 1960 after a watershed 36-17 win against archrival Kansas in the Border Showdown at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 24, 2007. The Tigers subsequently fell short against Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game, but the team ended the season with a school-record 12 wins, including a win in the Cotton Bowl and a No. 4 final national ranking.
Pinkel's finest year may have come in 2013, one year after Mizzou joined the SEC. Picked to finish sixth in the SEC Eastern Division, the Tigers finished 11-1 as East Division champs, and they gave Pinkel his second victory in the Cotton Bowl and his second 12-win season along with a final No. 5 ranking in the national polls.
Pinkel would lead the Tigers back to the SEC Championship Game in 2014, falling short against Alabama. The team finished the season with a win against Minnesota in the Citrus Bowl and an 11-3 record and No. 14 ranking in the AP Poll.
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.
Pinkel also is one of only three coaches in history to be the winningest coach of two college football programs, joining College Football Hall of Fame inductees Bear Bryant (Kentucky, Alabama) and Steve Spurrier (Florida, South Carolina). Pinkel coached 10 First Team All-Americans, three Academic All-Americans, three NFF National Scholar-Athletes and 79 first team all-conference players.
Pinkel began his head coaching career at Toledo in 1991 and during the next 10 years he would take the Rockets to new heights, winning 65.9 percent of his games and amassing a 73-37-3 record, the most wins in school history. His nine winning seasons at Toledo included the 1995 MAC championship, with the Rockets going 11-0-1 and finishing at No. 24 in the final polls. Pinkel would lead Toledo to three other MAC West Division titles.
In 1997, the Rockets finished 9-3, climbing as high as No. 18 in the national rankings. They repeated as division champions again in 1998 with a 7-5 record. In his final season with the Rockets in 2000, the team went 10-1, including a 24-6 win at Penn State. The team finished the regular season with the MAC West Division title and ranked No. 25 in the AP Poll. He was named the MAC Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1997.
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."
Pinkel becomes the sixth Missouri coach to enter the College Football Hall of Fame, joining Frank Broyles (1957), Dan Devine (1958-70), Don Faurot (1935-42, 1946-56), Jim Phelan (1920-21) and Bill Roper (1909).
Seven former Tiger players are also in the Hall: Paul Christman (1938-40), Darold Jenkins (1939-41), Johnny Roland (1962, 1964-65), Bob Steuber (1940-43), Ed Travis (1916-17, 1919-20), Roger Wehrli (1966-68) and Kellen Winslow (1975-78).
The 2022 College Football Hall of Fame Class includes LaVar Arrington (Penn State), Champ Bailey (Georgia), Michael Crabtree (Texas Tech), Sylvester Croom (Alabama), Mike Doss (Ohio State), Chuck Ealey (Toledo), Kevin Faulk (LSU), Moe Gardner (Illinois), Boomer Grigsby (Illinois State), Mike Hass (Oregon State), Marvin Jones (Florida State), Andrew Luck (Stanford), Mark Messner (Michigan), Terry Miller (Oklahoma State), Rashaan Salaam (Colorado), Dennis Thomas (Alcorn State), Zach Wiegert (Nebraska), Roy Williams (Oklahoma) and coaches John Luckhardt (Washington & Jefferson [PA], California [PA]), Billy Jack Murphy (Memphis) and Gary Pinkel (Toledo, Missouri).
The accomplishments of the 2022 Class will be forever immortalized at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, and each inductee will receive a custom ring created by Jostens, the official and exclusive supplier of NFF rings.
Including the 2022 Hall of Fame Class, only 1,056 players and 226 coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame from the nearly 5.62 million who have played or coached the game during the past 153 years. In other words, less than two one-hundredths of a percent (.02%) of the individuals who have played the game have earned this distinction.
