By Glypie Grider
It took him three times to focus in on the letters, but once Howard Schnellenberger saw that the University of Louisville football complex building had been named after him, he was speechless.
“Once the curtain dropped, it was breathtaking,” the former U of L head coach said. The honor was unveiled in a quick ceremony 15 minutes before the Cardinals’ homecoming football game against the Florida Atlantic Owls, the team currently coached by Schnellenberger.
“It was very touching,” Schnellenberger said. “I’ve always been treated better than I should’ve been here. We’re very indebted and very appreciative.”
“One of the most impressive things about Coach Schnellenberger was the great vision he had for this football program,” said U of L vice president for Athletics Tom Jurich during half time of Saturday’s game. “He inspired everyone to believe that this university could be competitive on a national level. He has been good to me since I’ve been at Louisville and we’re proud to have this facility named in his honor.”
The football complex, now the Howard L. Schnellenberger Football Building, is located in the north end zone of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, a $63 million venue Schnellenberger helped raise funds to build.
By the time the groundbreaking for Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium was under way in 1998, however, Schnellenberger had moved on to Florida Atlantic University, where in under 10 months he had secured permission to start a football program.
Petrino had a brief chat with Schnellenberger on the field before the U of L-FAU game. “I went over and said ‘thanks’ for what he did for this program,” Petrino said. “I’m really thankful for what he’s done here because it’s made my job easier.”
Schnellenberger guided the Cardinals to some of their most impressive seasons in school history. His 1990 U of L team capped a 10-1-1 season with a dominating 34-7 victory over Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl as the Cardinals earned a No. 12 final national ranking. The Cardinals’ 1993 team was 9-3 with victories over Arizona State, Texas and a season-ending 18-7 bowl win over Michigan State.
Schnellenberger had a 10-year coaching record of 54-56-2 with the Cardinals, but nearly half of those losses came in his first three seasons while laying the groundwork for the program (U of L was 8-26-1 his first three years). U of L had endured nine straight losing seasons before his 1988 squad produced an 8-3 record.
Schnellenberger is probably most remembered for his bold vision and statement about the Cardinal football program: “We’re on a collision course with the national championship. The only variable is time.”
“He’s jump-started this [Louisville] program,” said U of L senior Lee Barnwell. “He’s the main reason we’re where we are today. He put Louisville on the map nationally in football.”
Schnellenberger, a native of Louisville, came in a day earlier than the game to be inducted into the U of L Athletic Hall of Fame. He was a bit skeptical because the ceremony was the day before the football game, but he said once he realized it was U of L’s way of saying thank you, he felt honored.
“I feel like the prodigal son or a prodigal coach of the city of Louisville. I am indebted and very pleased they would do it,” Schnellenberger said of the honors he received.
U of L senior Laura Chai, a member of the 2005 Homecoming Court, said that the reception Cardinal fans gave Schnellenberger, who was coming into enemy territory as the opposing team’s coach, was commendable. “I feel like we gave them [the Owls] a warm reception even though he is the other team’s coach. Coach Schnellenberger’s part of a legacy – a legacy that rebuilt the Louisville football program into what it is today.”
And just as Schnellenberger restructured Louisville’s football program from 1985-1994, he is slowly building the Florida Atlantic football program. “We shall survive. We shall move ahead. We shall succeed,” he said of his Owls team.
Hall of Fame Honors
Schnellengberger was among six people named to U of L’s Athletic Hall of Fame Friday night. The hall of fame list includes Michelle Borgert Ihmels, who won six Metro Conference titles as a distance runner at U of L; Julie Guess Helmy, who won an unmatched 20 or more tennis matches in four seasons with the Cardinals; Dan Kopriva, who earned All American honors in 1992 when he ranked third in the nation in hitting with a .488 batting average; Schnellenberger, the second-winningest football coach in U of L history; Jamil Shalash, U of L’s career leader in soccer goals and points; and Billy Thompson, the starting forward on U of L’s 1986 NCAA Championship basketball team and the Cards’ No. 11 all-time scorer.
