Back to the Kentucky Wildcats Newsfeed

Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach, one-time assistant at Kentucky, dies at 61

STARKVILLE — College football has lost an icon.

Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach — a sharp-witted on-field innovator whose Air Raid offense transcended the sport and created numerous coaching disciples across the nation — died Monday night at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson following complications from a heart condition, MSU announced. The third-year Bulldogs coach was transferred to the hospital Sunday.

He was 61.

"Mike was a giving and attentive husband, father and grandfather," his family said in a statement. "He was able to participate in organ donation at UMMC as a final act of charity.