Former University of Colorado head football coach and athletic director Eddie Crowder is the recipient of the 2007 Citation of Honor, awarded by the Football Writer’s Association of America. 

He was presented with the honor at CU's football media day Wednesday by FWAA member B.G. Brooks of the Rocky Mountain News and CU head coach Dan Hawkins. 

The honor has been bestowed on a coach every year since 1964 by the FWAA, as the organization annually selects the recipient in recognizing their long and honorable careers in intercollegiate athletics, and specifically contributions to football.

"This is a surprise," Crowder said.  "No one has ever said that I was a man without words, so let me just say that I appreciate this honor very much."

Crowder was just 31 years old when he was hired on January 2, 1963 to take over a program reeling from NCAA penalties handed down the previous year.  He had quite the coaching pedigree as an assistant, working for Red Blaik at Army in 1955 and then for his college coach, Bud Wilkinson, for seven years prior to accepting his first (and only) head coaching job at Colorado.

He compiled a 63-49-2 record in 11 seasons as CU’s head coach (1963-73), returning CU to prominence following the NCAA penalties in 1962 that all but crushed the program.  The banner year was 1971, when Colorado enjoyed its first 10-win season, as the Buffs attained their highest rank ever (No. 3), finishing with a Bluebonnet Bowl win over Houston and a 10-2 record.

His name has officially been submitted by school officials for consideration into the College Football Hall of Fame.  While coaches are subject to a 60.0 winning percentage (Crowder's was 56.1), if you disregard the 4-16 record his first two seasons while rebuilding the program from the depths of NCAA probation, his winning percentage was 63.8 over the last nine years of his Buffalo rein. 

In 1965, he became CU’s second-ever athletic director, holding that post for 20 years until retiring in 1984.  Prominent coaching hires of Crowder’s included Bill McCartney (football), Ceal Barry (basketball) and Mark Simpson (golf), three of the most successful coaches in school history.  In 1990, he was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2004, into CU’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

As a collegian, he was an All-American quarterback at Oklahoma, and as coach of the Buffaloes, he defeated his alma mater four times, including a 20-14 in 1972 when the Sooners were ranked No. 2.  He entered private business after leaving CU, and is semi-retired and lives in Boulder.  He remains involved with CU athletics and particularly football.

“Eddie had been on the list for a while and had a good record at Colorado, so the committee thought it was his time,” said Steve Richardson, the executive director of the FWAA.  “We have been doing guys who recently retired, and while Eddie’s been out a little bit longer than some of the recent recipients, we wanted to honor his service and contribution to college football both as a coach and an athletic director.”

Crowder, who will turn 76 later this month (August 26), is the second coach associated with CU to earn the citation; in 1998, Bill Mallory was afforded the honor.  Mallory actually was hired by Crowder as his replacement at CU in 1973, and he proceeded to lead CU to a 35-21-1 mark in five seasons for the Buffaloes, including an 8-4 record and trip to the Orange Bowl for the 1976 when Colorado was the Big Eight Conference tri-champion.  Mallory also coached at Miami-Ohio, Indiana and Northern Illinois.

The list of previous winners includes coaching legends like Frank Broyles, Bear Bryant, Duffy Daugherty, Dan Devine, Vince Dooley, Bob Devaney, Don Faurot, Frank Kush, Jess Neely and Darrell Royal.  The recipients this decade:

 Recent Citation Recipients

2000    Hayden Fry              North Texas, SMU, Iowa

2001    Spike Dykes             Texas Tech

2002    LaVell Edwards        BYU

2003    John Cooper            Tulsa, Arizona State, Ohio State

2004    R.C. Slocum             Texas A&M

2005    Fred Akers               Wyoming, Texas Purdue

2006    Ken Hatfield            Air Force, Arkansas, Clemson, Rice

2007   Eddie Crowder     Colorado