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Eddie Crowder was elected to the CU Athletic
Hall of Fame in 2004.
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BOULDER ? Eddie Crowder, long-time University of Colorado football coach and athletic director, passed away shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday evening from complications of leukemia. He was 77.
Crowder passed peacefully with his family by his side at Exempla Health Center in nearby Lafayette after checking into the hospital Monday with respiratory problems. Earlier this decade, he had beaten non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma into remission.
“What a blessing he was to all of us,” said Kate, his wife of nearly 20 years. “The pain of my loss is overcome with the joy of having had 20 fabulous years with a man who adored me and whom I adored even more.”
Crowder was hired on Jan. 3, 1963 as the Colorado’s 17th head football coach, signing a four-year contract at $15,000 per year at the time. On July 1, 1965, he also assumed the duties of athletic director, succeeding the retiring Harry Carlson.
CU was 67-49-2 in his 11 seasons as coach, 63-33-2 not including his first two seasons when he was rebuilding the program, with a 13-21 record against ranked teams and 3-2 mark in bowl games. In addition to road wins at No. 9 LSU and No. 6 Ohio State in 1971, his CU teams also ended No. 4 Penn State’s 31-game unbeaten streak in 1970, decimated a No. 10 Air Force team 49-19 in 1970, and toppled No. 2 Oklahoma in 1972 among other great performances.
When he retired following the 1973 season, he exited as the second all-time winningest coach in CU history. Crowder also put together tremendous staffs, several coaches going on to become nationally respected and renowned head coaches themselves. These include Jim Mora, Don James, Jerry Claiborne, Kay Dalton, Rudy Feldman and Les Steckel.
In his 11-year coaching career, he defeated 10 peer coaches who went on to be elected to the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame, posting a 16-16 record in 32 games against college football’s greatest. In his coaching days, Colorado had nine All-Americans, 33 All-Big Eight Conference performers, five Academic All-Americans and 37 National Football League draft choices, with five of his last seven teams earning bowl trips, two more than the school had in its history prior to his taking over as coach. Two of his players went on to be elected to the NFF College Football Hall of Fame, brothers Dick and Bobby Anderson, as they were inducted in 1993 and 2006, respectively.
Five of Crowder’s last seven teams earned bowl trips with two appearances each in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl (1967 and 1971) and the Liberty Bowl (1969 and 1970), as well as a berth in the Gator Bowl (1972).
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Eddie Crowder served as athletic director
from 1965-84.
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Crowder served as athletic director at Colorado for 20 years (1965-84), where he directed three major expansions to Folsom Field, improvements to Balch Fieldhouse, the home of the basketball Buffs since 1936 before he coordinated all aspects of development of CU’s Events/Conference Center (opened in1 979), and the integration of women’s athletics into the men’s department in 1978. He hired top people, including legendary CU coaches Bill McCartney (football), Ceal Barry (women’s basketball) and Mark Simpson (golf), along with national respected administrators like Jon Burianek (ticket/business manager) and David Plati (sports information), the latter both “home grown” along with Simpson as all three started as student workers in the athletic department.
Crowder directed three major expansions of Folsom Field to give Colorado one of the most attractive and comfortable football stadiums in the country. His efforts in the area of basketball included the “sprucing up” of Balch Fieldhouse twice, as well as the building of CU’s Coors Events/Conference Center. He also took fundraising to a never before seen level at the university, and when campus often needed dollars for projects, they turned to Crowder for help.
After the department hit hard financial times in 1980, forcing the elimination of seven sports, what Crowder himself termed the toughest time of his career as athletic director, he vowed to stay on the job until the department was financially sound again. That turnaround from a $1 million debt took only three years to complete, and he announced his retirement in the spring of 1984.
He was inducted into the State of Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, the State of Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was the Football Writer’s Association of American Citation of Honor recipient, a prestigious award presented annually since 1964 recognizing distinguished careers in athletics and specifically contributions to football.
Eddie Crowder in 1968 with Bobby Anderson and Jim Bratten. |
Born August 26, 1931 in Arkansas City, Kan., Crowder was raised in Muskogee, Okla., where he graduated from Central High School in 1949, where he quarterbacked the school to the state championship his senior year. He enrolled at the University of Oklahoma that fall and was a reserve quarterback on the Sooners’ first national championship team in 1950.
Crowder started for OU the next two seasons as he guided the Sooners to an 8-2-0 mark in 1951 and 8-1-1 in 1952. In his senior year he was named to the All-America and All-Big Seven Conference teams. Often called the “master of deception," he was drafted by the New York Giants in 1953, but declined due to a nerve problem in his throwing arm.
Ironically, one of Crowder’s greatest games came against CU as a junior when he bombed the Buff defense for four touchdown passes, three of them in the first quarter. It was Colorado’s only conference loss that season (1951) as Crowder had scoring strikes of 27,67,38 and 22 yards?completing six of seven passes for 185 yards and adding 54 more rushing yards on six option keepers.
Edwin B. Crowder received his bachelor’s degree in Geology from Oklahoma in 1955 after a two-year interruption following his playing days during which he served in the U.S. Army engineers. He played quarterback on the Fort Hood (Texas) team in 1953 and served as the backfield coach there in 1954.
As an assistant college coach, Crowder served his apprenticeship under two of the game’s masters?one season (1955) at Army under Red Blaik and seven seasons (1956-62) at Oklahoma under Bud Wilkinson, his college coach. Colorado looked at him following Dal Ward’s dismissal in 1958, but didn’t pull the trigger on the then 26-year old. Five years later, he was the sole target of then-athletic director Harry Carlson.
He owned Eddie’s Mexican Caf? in the 1980s, a popular restaurant in Boulder. After leaving CU, he served for a time as the sales and marketing director for The International, Colorado’s first regular stop on the PGA Tour. He then ventured into international marketing with QuixStar/Amway. He also enjoyed traveling with family and did occasional motivational speaking.
He is survived by his wife, the former Kate Alexander, whom he married on Oct. 4, 1989, two children, son Mike and daughter Carol Jean, two stepchildren, David Roman and Rebecca Roman, and three grandchildren, Stephanie D’Angelo, Julia D’Angelo and Trevor James. His parents, two brothers and another son, Robert, preceded him in death.
A memorial service has been set for 2:00 p.m. Saturday (Spet. 13) on the club level on the east side of Folsom Field. It is open to the public, with parking available around the stadium.
In lieu of flowers, the family has established an Eddie Crowder Football Scholarship Fund. Anyone interested in contributing memorial gifts can make checks payable to the CU Foundation (put Crowder Football Scholarship in the memo field) and mail to The Buff Club, 369 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0369.
Eddie is the seventh CU icon the school has lost this decade. Buffaloes preceding him in death since 2000 include SID/associate AD Fred “The Count” Casotti (Oct. 11, 2001), three-sport legend and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White (April 15, 2002), basketball coach Russell “Sox” Walseth (Jan. 28, 2004), track legend Gil Cruter (July 25, 2005), golf coach Mark Simpson (Dec. 5, 2005) and long-time athletic trainer Jack Rockwell (Oct. 22, 2007).
Casotti and Walseth also passed at the age of 77; Cruter was 90, White 84, Rockwell 81 and Simpson 55.
Eddie Crowder Year-By-Year Coaching Record
Conference Overall
Season W L T Pct. Pts Opp Rank W L T Pct. Pts Opp
1963 Colorado ........................... 2 5 0 .286 80 173 6th/8 2 8 0 .200 100 245
1964 Colorado ........................... 1 6 0 .143 66 98 7th/8 2 8 0 .200 101 156
1965 Colorado ........................... 4 2 1 .643 134 93 3rd/8 6 2 2 .700 163 106
1966 Colorado ........................... 5 2 0 .714 165 92 2nd/8 7 3 0 .700 191 132
1967 Colorado ........................... 5 2 0 .714 137 72 2nd/8 9 2 0 .818 245 113
1968 Colorado ........................... 3 4 0 .429 157 169 4th/8 4 6 0 .400 220 244
1969 Colorado ........................... 5 2 0 .714 161 146 3rd/8 8 3 0 .727 276 227
1970 Colorado ........................... 3 4 0 .429 200 148 4th/8 6 5 0 .545 309 206
1971 Colorado ........................... 5 2 0 .714 181 138 3rd/8 10 2 0 .833 370 220
1972 Colorado ........................... 4 3 0 .571 158 145 3rd/8 8 4 0 .667 313 206
1973 Colorado ........................... 2 5 0 .286 116 163 6th/8 5 6 0 .455 240 250
Career Totals 39 37 1 .513 1555 1437 67 49 2 .576 2528 2105
Eddie Crowder’s Wins Over Hall-of-Fame Coaches (10 coaches, 16-16 record)
Coach Record Scores
Earle Bruce, Iowa State .............. 1-0 CU 23-16 (1973)
Paul “Bear” Bryant, Alabama..... 1-0 CU 47-33 (1969 Liberty Bowl)
Bob Devaney, Nebraska ............ 1-9 CU 21-16 (1967); NU 41-6 (1963), 21-3 (1964), 38-13 (1965),
21-19 (1966), 22-6 (1968), 20-7 (1969), 29-13 (1970), 31-7 (1971),
33-10 (1972), 28-16 (1973)
Dan Devine, Missouri ................. 3-5 CU 26-0 (1966), 23-9 (1967), 31-24 (1969); MU 28-7 (1963),
16-7 (1964), 20-7 (1965), 27-14 (1968), 30-16 (1970)
Woody Hayes, Ohio State .......... 1-0 CU 20-14 (1971)
Johnny Majors, Iowa State ....... 5-0 CU 28-18 (1968), 14-0 (1969), 61-10 (1970), 24-14 (1971), 34-22 (1972)
Charles McClendon, LSU........... 1-1 CU 31-21 (1971); LSU 17-6 (1973)
Joe Paterno, Penn State ........... 1-1 CU 41-13 (1970); PSU 27-3 (1969)
Grant Teaff, Baylor....................... 1-0 CU 52-28 (1973)
Bill Yeoman, Houston ................. 1-0 CU 29-17 (1971 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl)
Eddie Crowder Year-By-Year Player Statistics
PASSING RUSHING
Season Att-Com-Int Pct. Yds TD Att Yds Avg. TD
1950 1- 1- 0 100.0 10 0 9 53 5.9 0
1951 57-30-1 52.6 475 5 92 382 4.2 6
1952 52-30-3 57.7 704 6 80 226 2.8 2
Totals 110-61-4 55.5 1,189 11 181 661 3.7 8
ADDITIONAL STATISTICS?NCAA Rating: 172.0 (career).
