COLUMBIA, Mo. – Former Mizzou Football head coach Gary Pinkel has been selected for enshrinement into the Missouri Sports Hall Of Fame, as announced by Jerald Andrews, the President and Executive Director of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, on Wednesday (Dec. 9). Pinkel will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on January 31 in Springfield, Mo. Also of note to Mizzou fans, former Track & Field standout Natasha (Kaiser) Brown and the 1966 Mizzou Football team that won the Sugar Bowl will also be enshrined in the 2016 class.
The Enshrinement is 5 p.m. Sunday, January 31, at the University Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Springfield. An 11 a.m. reception presented by Meeks The Builder’s Choice is scheduled at the Hall of Fame, 3861 E. Stan Musial Drive. Afternoon activities begin at 4 p.m. with a reception at University Plaza, and the program will follow immediately afterward. Individual tickets are $150, and a table of 10 is $1,500. For tickets, call the Hall of Fame at 417-889-3100.
Pinkel, 63, transformed Mizzou into a national program after taking over on Nov. 30, 2000, and will conclude his career as the winningest coach in school history. He’s amassed a 118-73 record at Mizzou in 15 seasons, and his 191 career wins stand as the 19th-most all-time in NCAA FBS history. Under his guidance, Mizzou won five conference divisional titles (2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014), reached 10 bowl games (winning six) and had five teams post a final top-20 national ranking (including two top-five finishes). His Tigers posted winning seasons in 10-of-15 years, following a stretch where Mizzou had only two winning seasons in the 17 seasons (1984-2000) prior to his arrival. He was named the National Coach of the Year in 2007 by FieldTurf, and won conference coach of the year honors in 2007 (Big 12) and 2014 (SEC).
Two times, Pinkel likely had his Tigers one win away from playing for a national championship, as wins in the 2007 and 2013 conference championship games could have propelled MU into title game appearances. In 2007, Mizzou surged to the school’s first-ever number one national ranking since 1960 after a watershed win over rival Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 24, 2007, when the Tigers were ranked fourth and the Jayhawks second coming into the game. That team would eventually end the season with a school-record 12 wins that included a Cotton Bowl title and final national ranking of fourth.
Pinkel worked perhaps his finest coaching job in 2013, one year after Mizzou joined the vaunted Southeastern Conference and suffered an injury-plagued 5-7 season in 2012. Picked to finish sixth in the SEC Eastern Division by pre-season pundits, the Tigers jumped out to a 7-0 record and finished 11-1 and East Division champs. They would go on to a 12-win season, with another Cotton Bowl title, and final national ranking of fifth.
Pinkel’s emphasis on molding young men into successful student-athletes was evidenced by the great achievements they had in the classroom. Mizzou has improved its NCAA Graduation Success Rate for nine straight years, and has graduated 97 percent of its seniors the past five seasons.
Getting athletes to the next level has been another mark of success for Pinkel and his program. In his time at Mizzou, 32 Tigers were selected in the NFL Draft, including seven in the first round. Mizzou had 12 players taken in the first round of the NFL Draft in the previous 64 years combined (1937-2001) prior to Pinkel taking over.
— Mizzou Athletics —