Quarterback became a coach

Eddie Crowder, 77, an All-American quarterback at the University of Oklahoma who went on to become football coach and athletic director at the University of Colorado, died Tuesday night of complications from leukemia at a hospital in Lafayette, Colo., the school said.

Crowder compiled a record of 67-49-2 in 11 seasons as Colorado’s coach, from 1963 to 1973. He became athletic director at the Boulder campus in 1965 and kept those duties until 1984.

His best season as Colorado’s coach was 1971, when the Buffaloes went 10-2 and finished third in the national polls behind fellow Big Eight Conference members Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Born Edwin B. Crowder on Aug. 26, 1931, in Arkansas City, Kan., he grew up in Muskogee, Okla. He was a backup quarterback on Oklahoma’s 1950 national championship team coached by Bud Wilkinson, then became the Sooners’ starter in 1951 and ’52.

He served in the Army for two years and was an assistant coach at West Point for one season before returning to Oklahoma. He finished his bachelor’s degree in geology and was an assistant coach on Wilkinson’s staff from 1956 to 1962.