SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) - Frank "Muddy" Waters, the College Football Hall of Fame coach who had a successful run at Hillsdale College and finished his long career at Michigan State, died Wednesday. He was 83.
Waters died of congestive heart failure, Hillsdale spokesman Brad Monastiere said.
Waters coached at Hillsdale from 1954 through 1973, spent the following five seasons at Saginaw Valley State, then was head coach at Michigan State from 1980 through 1982.
Hillsdale won the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship in each of Waters' first seven years there. His 1955 team went 9-0 and gained national recognition for refusing to play in the Tangerine Bowl when bowl officials said the team's black players couldn't dress for the game in Orlando, Fla.
Waters finished his coaching career at his alma mater, Michigan State, where his Spartans went 10-23 in three seasons.
Waters was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000. He also was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame and was named NAIA coach of the year in 1957, when Hillsdale lost 27-26 to Pittsburg State in the national championship game.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press
This obituary was originally published in the Record-Eagle.
Muddy was my first high school football coach in Walled Lake, Michigan in the early 1950's. All of us in Walled Lake, who played for Muddy, have never forgotten him. He remembered most of us too.
Dick Smelser
October 08, 2006 | Lakeland, FL
Remembered By
Dick Smelser
October 08, 2006 | Lakeland, FL
My only meeting with Coach Waters was in 1982 before the MSU vs. Iowa game,his last at MSU. I was there for an official visit as an MSU football recruit. He was very gracious and welcoming. It was sad knowing it was his last game and as brief as my meeting with him was I have never forgotten him. My condolences to his family.
Doug Waha
September 21, 2006 | Charlevoix, MI
FOOTBALL HAS LOST A GREAT FRIEND.
BILL BRICKER
September 21, 2006 | RAPID CITY, MI
Deepest sympathy. Muddy was a friend, although I never met him.
Mike Mihalus
September 21, 2006 | East Lansing, MI
I played football in college for a fellow GLIAC school. Hillsdale's stadium and their program was always one of the better places to play and play against. I played for a coach that knew Muddy - and the stories he told us make him sound like a true players coach - which made him a dieing breed! The football community will miss this man and all the great things he did.
September 21, 2006 | TC, MI
