Before retiring in August 2011, Howard Schnellenberger was an American football coach for a long time. His most recent position was as the head coach for Florida Atlantic University, however prior to this, he saw success with positions at other universities and professional teams. Prior to his coaching days, Schnellenberger played football himself at Flaget High School in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as baseball and basketball. He then earned a scholarship to the University of Kentucky, where he ended up working as an assistant coach in 1959 and 1960 under Blanton Collier who was the head coach at the time.
Schnellenberger then took the position of offensive coordinator with Alabama, who went on to win three national championships. He then joined the NFL in 1966 where he became receivers coach of the Los Angeles Rams, working his way along, with seemingly no time to relax or do what we might do nowadays, including watch television or play partypoker. He became head of Baltimore Colts in 1973, before heading to Miami to salvage the team that had been lagging behind others. Here, Schnellenberger was able to draw on his previous experience and revolutionise the way the team was working. This culminated in Miami making it to a National Championship in 1983, to beat Nebraska in the 50th Orange Bowl.
After a time, Schnellenberger followed his trend of coaching struggling teams and returned to his hometown of Louisville. He stayed with them for a while and after 10 years, they had met with immensely surprising success. He was then hired to replace head coach Gary Gibbs for Oklahoma in 1994, however this team did not flourish as others had under his guidance. He resigned from this position and spent a few years out of the picture, before re-emerging in 1998 to become director of football operations for Florida Atlantic University. He raised funds and selected himself for coach in 1999 to lead them to success and the rest, as they say, is history.?