Bill McCartney’s family giving a speech at his celebration of life at CU Event Center on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Scott Tan/CU Independent)
On Jan. 22, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Events Center hosted a public memorial service to highlight the life and career of former head football coach Bill McCartney. During the event, speakers revered his life in three major facets: his family, love for football and faith.
McCartney, known as Coach Mac, passed away on Jan. 10. He is the longest-tenured head coach in Buff’s football history and the winningest to this day. While Coach Mac is known widely for his success in the football world, the former head coach is also known for moments of controversy, including his vocal support for Amendment 2 – a 1992 ballot measure that denied discrimination protections to the LGBTQ community.
Although he had the most wins as head coach in Colorado history, including three conference titles and the program’s only National Championship in 1990, attendees focused his memorial service on his accomplishments as a father and his strong connection to his faith.
McCartney founded a Christian ministry, Promise Keepers, in 1990 with the mission to turn men in the direction of God and help them become better fathers, husbands and brothers.
“It was amazing,” said Blake Anderson, one of McCartney’s former players. “All of his spirituality took a toll on us, and let us believe in God and have great faith for our family and friends.”
Attendees shared stories about Coach Mac and his faith. His son, Mike McCartney, said his father washed the feet of every family member at a gathering. Mike McCartney also shared that his father would sit down to pray with the friends that his sons would bring home.
For the three years that coaching and Promise Keepers overlapped, Coach Mac took his players to volunteer at the ministry.
But even before Promise Keepers, McCartney’s former players say he infused his beliefs into coaching.
“What we learned at the University of Colorado Boulder was not to just be good football players. That’s easy,” said Mike Jones, the senior captain of the 1989 team. “We learned how we can be good fathers, how we can be good husbands, how we can be good citizens.”
During the memorial service, Tom McCartney, another of Coach Mac’s sons, recounted a story his father frequently told about a different football team – the University of Illinois – during the semifinal leading up to the 1952 Rose Bowl.
As the story goes, the backup linebacker found his head coach and nagged to start him the next day. The coach agreed to give him a spot on the kickoff team.
From the coin toss, the Fighting Illini got to kick for the first play of the game, and the linebacker ran down the field and made a vigorous tackle. Surprised by his athleticism, the coach let him play more.
Later in the game, the linebacker jumped on a play, snagged an interception and ran it back for a pick-six. That would be the only touchdown during the game, and Illinois would end up winning and advancing to the Rose Bowl.
After the game, while everyone was celebrating, the head coach found the player crying in the locker room. The player asked if the coach remembered his dad.
In the story, the coach did remember the player’s father because he was blind. The dad’s friends used to carry him to football games so he could be present for his son. The linebacker told his coach that his dad passed away.
According to Tom McCartney, every time Coach Mac would tell this story, he’d connect it back to the relationship between father and son. His three sons, Mike, Tom and Marc all spoke at the service and expressed thankfulness toward their father.
“Today is a celebration because our gratitude right now is way larger than our grief,” Marc McCartney said. “We don’t have hope because we have faith.”
All the speakers wrapped up their messages commonly with a bible verse.
“Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord,” they said.
Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Baylan Wysuph at Baylan.Wysuph@colorado.edu
