University of Missouri Head Football Coach Gary Pinkel takes questions from media during the regular availability session on Monday Nov. 9, 2015. Dozens of members of the football team decided to boycott all football-related activities after racial tensions caused a graduate student to go on a hunger strike and forced the resignation of System President Timothy M. Wolfe. Pinkel explained why he supported his players. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com
Christian GoodenIt was an unprecedented run at the University of Missouri for coach Gary Pinkel, who engineered the rise of what had been a moribund football program to a national title contender before leaving a decade and a half later amid racial unrest on campus that drew national attention shortly after he had been diagnosed with cancer in 2015.