By the time he could process Friday’s stunning news, Mike Alden thought back to November 3, 2001.
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“We knew they were going to come out with a lot of energy”, Mangum said. “Coach Pinkel was a father figure to me…I know he will fight!!”
And now, the end is in sight. It was a great finish to an otherwise troublesome week for this team that started with boycotts and protests and continued with coach Gary Pinkel’s impromptu meeting with his team to announce he was resigning. He dismissed the idea that the week’s events in Columbia, Missouri, led to his decision.Pinkel, 63, said he was diagnosed with lymphoma in May.
“After we played Vanderbilt (Oct. 24), I had a scheduled PET scan on October 26th for reassessment”, Pinkel said.
For the record, my choice was Joe’s Kansas City – formerly known as Oklahoma Joe’s – and apparently my suggestion carried a few weight, as I did indeed see those same two guys later that afternoon at the popular gas station eatery, along with dozens of other BYU football fans. But a Missouri defense that has carried the team all season stiffened the rest of the way, preserving an emotional victory.
“I want to make very clear that I’m not doing poorly, and that this is a manageable disease, but it’s one that will never go away”, Pinkel said.
Everybody was engaged emotionally in the night that’ll nearly certainly go down as one of the most iconic in the football program’s history. I love him. I appreciate him. “And I’m going to miss him”.
The news comes four days after Missouri’s president, Tim Wolfe, resigned amid campus-based protests calling for his ouster as controversy swelled over allegations the school hadn’t done enough to address a culture of apparent racism.
Pinkel again kept his team together this week when about 30 players decided they wanted to support a hunger-striking Missouri graduate student by not participating in football-related activities.
JC playoff pairings: City College of San Francisco and College of San Mateo are the top two Northern California seeds in playoff pairings announced Sunday by the California Community College Athletic Association’s bowl-game selection committee.
Pinkel and Rhoades said Monday that they had not sought to get anybody fired.
Sophomore cornerback Anthony Sherrils said postgame he came to Missouri for Pinkel.
All of the hand-wringing over Missouri’s upcoming game against BYU disappeared, it was game on, and courtesy of a politically minded opponent, the Cougars and their faithful learned an important lesson about just how much influence athletes can wield in the 21st century university power structure.
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“I’m a big Mizzou fan”, said MU sophomore Aaron Ladd. “We are extremely appreciative of all that he has done for Mizzou”.
