South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Leaving a legacy
Former UM, FAU head coach and Dolphins assistant dies at 87
Legendary football coach Howard Schnellenberger, who led the Miami Hurricanes to their first national championship and was FAU’s inaugural coach and an assistant on the Miami Dolphins’ 1972 undefeated team, died Saturday at the age of 87.
Schnellenberger’s coaching career spanned over half a century. The Saint Meinrad, Ind. native who grew up in Louisville became known for revitalizing two college programs (Miami and Louisville) and creating another one from scratch (FAU) while leaving a lasting legacy on the South Florida sports landscape.
After starting his coaching career as an assistant coach at his alma mater of Kentucky in 1959 and making stops at Alabama (1961-65) and the Los Angeles Rams (1966-69), Schnellenberger was hired by Don Shula to be the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator in 1970.
The Dolphins went 34-7-1 during the regular season from 1970-72, Schnellenberger’s initial tenure with the team, including going
17-0 in the 1972 season that ended with the Dolphins winning their first Super Bowl in just their third season in the NFL. Schnellenberger coached the Baltimore Colts from
1973-74 before rejoining the Dolphins as the offensive coordinator in 1975 for four more seasons.
“The Miami Dolphins are deeply saddened at the passing of Howard Schnellenberger,” the Dolphins said in a statement. “He was an important part of our success, including the perfect season Super Bowl
[7] championship team. He will truly be missed.”
Schnellenberger departed from the Dolphins in 1979 to take over the coaching reins at a Miami Hurricanes program that had been through six coaches the previous
10 years and was considering dropping down to the Division I-AA level before his arrival.
With an emphasis on recruiting local talent — referring to South Florida as the “State of Miami” — and his pro-style offense, Schnellenberger quickly turned the UM program around. The Hurricanes went 9-3 during their second season under Schnellenberger in 1980, 9-2 in 1981 and 7-4 in 1982 before going 11-1 in 1983. They ranked No. 5 heading into the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1984, when the Hurricanes beat then-top-ranked Nebraska, 31-30, for their first national title.
Schnellenberger departed from the Hurricanes following the title-winning season for The Spirit of Miami of the United States Football League leading to the Jimmy Johnson era at UM.
“Without him, there is no Miami Football,” UM said in a statement on its Twitter account of the 1983 National Coach of the Year recipient. “Howard Schnellenberger leaves behind a legacy more impactful than he’ll ever know.”
Schnellenberger never coached The Spirit of Miami, which instead moved to Orlando before the USFL shut down in 1986. He became Louisville’s head coach in 1985 and had winning seasons in five of his 10 years with the program, with the highlight of his tenure with the Cardinals coming in 1990 when they went 10-1-1 and beat Alabama in the 1991 Fiesta Bowl.
Schnellenberger started the Owls’ football program for his final coaching stop after originally being hired as a consultant in 1998 to explore beginning a football team at FAU. He became the head coach one year later ahead of the program’s first season in 2001.
The Owls went 11-3 during their third season under Schnellenberger in 2003 and 9-3 in 2004 before becoming an NCAA Division I-A program and playing a full Football Bowl Subdivision opponent slate for the first time in 2005.
FAU took a step back in 2005 and 2006 before going 8-5 during the 2007 season, winning the 2007 Sun Belt Conference title and the 2007 New Orleans Bowl for the program’s first bowl-game victory, a 44-27 win over Memphis. Schnellenberger was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year for the 2007 season. He led the Owls to a 7-6 record the next season and their second consecutive bowl-game victory, winning the
2008 Motor City Bowl, a 24-21 victory over Central Michigan.
Schnellenberger coached at the Owls’ on-campus stadium in Boca Raton during his final season with the Owls in 2011, with FAU naming the stadium’s field after him in 2014.
“I will never forget listening to Coach and my dad tell stories,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who coached at FAU from 2017-19, wrote on Twitter. “Blessed to just be able to sit, listen, and learn from them. I can only hope and pray someday that my former players and coaches talk about me even close to the way they did about you Coach Schnellenberger.”
Schnellenberger was in attendance for Willie Taggart’s introductory press conference as FAU’s head coach in December
2019, with Taggart saying at the time that he had “goosebumps” when he saw Schnellenberger and adding that he should be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame — a sentiment that many others share.
“From the FAU Football Family to the “Father of FAU Football”, Coach Howard Schnellenberger, we Thank You,” Taggart wrote on Twitter. “We are fully committed to making your Vision become a Reality. “Thank you Coach”.
For his career, Schnellenberger was a collegiate head football coach at Miami
(1979-1984), Louisville (1985—1994), Oklahoma (1995) and FAU (1999-2011), going
158-151-3. He recruited more than 100 players who were later drafted by the NFL.
Schnellenberger was named the 2021 Paul
“Bear” Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award recipient last June. He was inducted into Palm Beach County’s Hall of Fame in 2008 and FAU’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.
He fell at his Boynton Beach home last August and suffered a subdural hematoma. Schnellenberger was treated at a rehab/ recovery center after his hospital stay.
Schnellenberger is survived by his wife, Beverlee, who he was married to for 61 years, as well as multiple children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Instead of flowers, contributions are asked to be made to the Schnellenberger Family Foundation located in Delray Beach or the Howard Schnellenberger Endowed Scholarship Fund at FAU, according to a Florida Atlantic statement. A private, family-only, memorial mass will be held. There will be a celebration of life ceremony at FAU at a later date.
“Howard always allowed me to be a part of his football life,” Beverlee said in a statement. “Watching him on the sidelines was an opportunity that gave us a special closeness — win or lose — that not many wives get. Even though he never smiled, he was always smiling in his heart. We loved all the moves and challenges. I will miss his warm heart, his warm hands and soft kisses. Howard always treated me special, like a queen, and was truly a husband that every Canadian girl dreams of. You will always be my love, now and forever. I’m proud to be your wife. You were a great leader of men and the leader of our lives.”