William Paul McCartney was an American college football coach who was the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes for 13 seasons.
24 Facts About Bill McCartney
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Bill McCartney was the founder of the Promise Keepers men's ministry.
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Bill McCartney was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2013.
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Bill McCartney then served as the head football and basketball coach at Divine Child High School in Dearborn where he won state championships in football and basketball.
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Bill McCartney became the only high school coach ever hired by University of Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler when he was hired in 1974 as the defensive ends coach.
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In 1985, CU adopted a policy preventing coaches from organizing religious activities in response to complaints about Bill McCartney leading team prayers and similar activities.
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Bill McCartney continued, leading to a lawsuit by the ACLU, who alleged that such activities were unconstitutional at a public university.
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At that point, Bill McCartney agreed to back away from religious expressions in his role as coach, but increasingly engaged in advocacy for socially conservative policy in his personal life.
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Bill McCartney holds records for the most games coached, most wins, and most conference wins in the history of the Colorado Buffaloes football program.
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In 2012, Bill McCartney publicly criticized Colorado's firing of head coach Jon Embree as racially motivated.
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In 1990, while he was head football coach at Colorado, Bill McCartney founded a nonpartisan Christian men's group, Promise Keepers.
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Bill McCartney was concerned that men were falling away from Christianity and eroding the foundation of the American family.
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Bill McCartney later resigned as the head of Promise Keepers and founded another organization, The Road to Jerusalem.
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In September 2008, Bill McCartney rejoined Promise Keepers as CEO and chairman of the board.
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Bill McCartney served on the board of directors of the Equip Foundation, Gospel to the Unreached Millions, and Concerts of Prayer International.
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Bill McCartney was on the forefront to support the 1992 Amendment 2 to the Colorado Constitution, which prevented the passage of anti-discrimination laws giving protected status to gays, lesbians, or bisexuals.
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Bill McCartney won a number of national coaching awards in 1989, including the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award, the Walter Camp Coach of the Year Award and the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award.
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Bill McCartney was inducted into the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.
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Bill McCartney lived with his wife, Lyndi, in the Denver area.
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Bill McCartney's son, Mike, is a football sports agent, who negotiated Kirk Cousins' fully guaranteed three-year contract worth $84 million which was the first fully guaranteed and, as of signing, highest-paying contract in NFL history.
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Just before the 1993 Fiesta Bowl, Bill McCartney confessed to his wife that he had committed adultery 20 years ago.
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Lyndi later suffered from severe bulimia and contemplated suicide, which prompted Bill McCartney to retire from coaching in 1994.
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In 2016, Bill McCartney's family announced he had been diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
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Bill McCartney died from complications of dementia at his Boulder home on January 10,2025, at the age of 84.