Friday, August 12, 2011

Howard Schnellenberger to finally step away

Howard Schnellenberger
((ht: sun-sentinel.com))

We are absolutely amazed to think that the man is still a head coach. But he is 77-years-old and Joe Paterno has him by a few years.

But in the end, Howard Schnellenberger is ready to hang 'em up. He announced on Thursday that he'll retire as head coach for Florida Atlantic University at the end of this season.

Read more from the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel RIGHT HERE

Schnellenberger will be leaving a "Huge" legacy. And before we talk about his history, his most immediate one will be at FAU. That's because he led the drive to get a $70 million, 30,000 seat on-campus stadium built at the Boca Raton school.

His history in South Florida goes on forever. From being the offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins in their glory days of the early 70's to leading the University of Miami to its first national championship in 1983. He worked a variety of coaching and non-coaching jobs from 1995-98 and has been at FAU ever since.

He has high hopes for his team this season, though if you read our Sun Belt conference preview (link HERE), we aren't quite so optimistic.

But Howard Schnellenberger retires with honors. He may not be remembered quite as much outside the state of Florida, but he'll certainly be remembered as a builder of programs and a successful coach.

Here's a somewhat poorly done story by FAUOwlAccess on the new stadium getting the lights turned on:

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