Missouri’s Gary Pinkel, whose team threatened boycott, to step down because of health

Missouri football Coach Gary Pinkel abruptly announced Friday he would resign at the end of the season for health reasons, days after he kept the team united when players went on strike because of racial tensions on campus.

Pinkel, 63, said he was diagnosed with lymphoma in May. He dismissed the idea that the week’s events led to his decision.

“I made a decision in May, after visiting with my family, that I wanted to keep coaching as long as I felt good and had the energy I needed,” Pinkel said in a statement. “I felt great going into the season but also knew that I would need to re-assess things at some point, and I set our bye week as the time when I would take stock of the future.”

The stunning move comes after a tumultuous week on the Columbia, Mo., campus that began when players tweeted they would boycott Saturday’s game against BYU unless the university system president resigned. Pinkel supported his players and the boycott ended less than 48 hours after it started.

A statement from the school said Pinkel informed his staff and the team on Friday. Pinkel and athletic director Mack Rhoades, who is in his first year leading the Missouri athletic department, are discussing a role that would keep Pinkel associated with Tigers athletics after he is done coaching.

Pinkel is the winningest coach in school history with a 117-71 record over 15 seasons. His team has won the last two SEC East titles, but is out of contention for a conference title this year. The Tigers (4-5) play BYU on Saturday and have two more games after that to get to six wins and become bowl eligible.

Pinkel received multiple treatments in May and June for a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the statement said. Doctors said the treatments would not interfere with his coaching duties.

On the field, Pinkel’s accomplishments at Missouri have been unmatched. The Tigers have had five 10-win seasons under Pinkel and won a division title in in five of the last eight seasons. Missouri’s last 10-win season before Pinkel was in 1960.

He might be remembered more as the coach who navigated some uncharted and unusually territory for a football program. Two seasons ago, Michael Sam was playing for Missouri when he came out to his teammates and coaches before the season. The team kept Sam’s secret and he praised Pinkel and his teammates for being so supportive.

Sam went on to become the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team. He was cut from two teams and played briefly in the Canadian Football League but left for personal reasons. He has said he wants to return to the NFL.

Pinkel again kept his team together this week when about 30 players decided they wanted to support a hunger-striking Missouri graduate student but not participating in football-related activities.

The group of black players declared the strike Saturday night and the next day Pinkel took to social media himself to announce that the team would act as one, even though it would have cost the school $1 million to cancel the game against BYU at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

Pinkel, an Akron, Ohio, native, came to Missouri in 2001 after 10 seasons as the coach at Toledo. For years the Tigers had been buried near the bottom of the Big Eight and the Big 12 standings. But in 2007, Missouri went 12-2 and was a victory in the Big 12 title game against Oklahoma from playing in the BCS championship game.

Missouri never did win a conference title under Pinkel, but his teams often exceeded expectations. When Missouri joined the Southeastern Conference in 2012, the Tigers went 5-7 and there was speculation the school look for a new coach to guide the Tigers in their new league.

Instead, Pinkel’s team won the SEC East in 2013 and ‘14, combined to 23-5, the best two-year stretch in school history.

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