Howard Schnellenberger, the legendary college football coach who won a national title at Miami before lifting the Louisville football program to heights previously thought unreachable, passed away Saturday morning at his Florida home. He was 87.
When Louisville hired Schnellenberger on Dec. 2, 1984 to be its new head football coach, the common thought was that the struggling program was in need of a miracle. Luckily, Schnellenberger was the man who had already made such a thing happen.
In 1979, Schnellenberger had taken over a Miami program that seemed to be on its last legs. He then pulled off what was deemed “The Miracle at Miami” by recruiting the city harder than any of his predecessors and installing a boot camp methodology and a pro style offense.