Howard Schnellenberger, the architect of the FAU football program and head coach who led the University of Miami to its first national championship, has died, FAU announced on Saturday. He was 87 years old.
Schnellenberger's career in coaching spanned more than 50 years, starting as an assistant in 1959 at his alma mater Kentucky and ending in 2011 with Florida Atlantic, where he started the university's football program and turned it into a Division I program in four seasons.
Perhaps his most renowned coaching achievement came in leading the University of Miami to its first national championship just years after the program's future was being reconsidered by university officials.