BOULDER, Colo.—Not often will a contingent of Colorado supporters rise up out of their seats at Folsom Field and clap along to the playing of Oklahoma’s fight song, “Boomer Sooner.”
For Eddie Crowder, the crowd made an exception.
A throng of family, friends and former players turned up on a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon to honor Crowder, the former Buffaloes coach and Sooners quarterback who died from complications of leukemia on Tuesday night. He was 77. Crowder’s wishes were to be cremated, and his family is planning a private ceremony.
“It’s appropriate that we take a football Saturday and honor a great man who really was instrumental in building all of this,” said Bobby Anderson, a tailback and quarterback under Crowder. “Everybody that’s here, we’re all part of his genealogy. He really is the father figure.”
Former Dallas Cowboys and Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer was supposed to be a guest speaker but couldn’t make it to Boulder because of Hurricane Ike. He said in a statement that he always came away impressed from his conversations with Crowder.
“He was just a cut above, a winner,” Switzer said.
Crowder, who played quarterback at Oklahoma under Bud Wilkinson, compiled a 67-49-2 mark in 11 seasons as Colorado’s coach, from 1963 to 1973. He also served as athletic director starting in 1965, a role he would stay in for the next 20 years.
“He was the coach when I was selling Cokes in the stadium on game day,” CU athletic director Mike Bohn said. “He was a true mentor and friend to me. It will be real different going through the challenge of building the program without him in the trenches with us.”
One thing’s for sure: Crowder thought the Buffaloes found a winner in coach Dan Hawkins. On his death bed, Crowder told Hawkins, “Dan, you’re the right man for the job.”
The vote of confidence choked up Hawkins.
“It’s powerful,” Hawkins said of Crowder’s statement. “He’s a huge influence, a huge mentor, a tremendous example of how you do it.”
Crowder was described by his former players as a coach who taught them that they were a product of their preparation. He made sure his players were ready by practicing a play repeatedly, his watchful eyes taking in every detail.
Crowder got his players’ attention despite rarely raising his voice.
But you didn’t want to cross him, especially if you were a suspected spy from Oklahoma.
Steve Ehrhart, the executive director of the Liberty Bowl, recounted a story from when he was a graduate assistant under Crowder in 1972. The Buffaloes were preparing for a game against second-ranked Oklahoma, and Crowder spotted a guy in the stands taking copious notes.
Crowder sent someone up to interrogate him and it turned out he was a graduate of Oklahoma, supposedly scouting Colorado and sending intelligence back to Norman, Okla.
So incensed was Crowder, he was going to have the Sooners president, athletic director and coach arrested on espionage charges when they arrived in town for the game.
He changed his mind, though, thinking it would only pump up the Sooners players. Instead, he used it as motivation for his own team, which went out and beat Oklahoma, 20-14.
“He gave one of the best speeches of all time,” Ehrhart said.
Crowder turned around a downtrodden Buffaloes program, compiling a 63-33-2 record after two years of rebuilding. His best season came in 1971, when the Buffaloes went 10-2 and finished third in the national polls behind fellow Big 8 conference members Nebraska and Oklahoma.
As an athletic director, he directed three major expansions to Folsom Field and hired coaches like Bill McCartney, who would lead the Buffaloes to a national title in 1990.
But it didn’t start off well for McCartney, who struggled in his first three seasons, going 7-25-1.
“My wife parked the car adjacent to the stadium and by mistake left two game tickets on the dashboard,” McCartney said in his speech. “Somebody came along and saw those two tickets and broke into our car and left two more.”
McCartney never feared for his job.
“Coach Crowder was patient with me,” he said.
Born Aug. 26, 1931, in Arkansas City, Kan., Crowder was raised in Muskogee, Okla., where he won a state high school championship in 1949. He was a backup quarterback on Oklahoma’s first national championship team in 1950 and guided the Sooners to a 16-3-1 mark as a starter in 1951-52.
After serving as an assistant for seven seasons under Wilkinson at Oklahoma, Crowder was hired by Colorado athletic director Harry Carlson at the age of 31.
He’s been a Colorado fixture ever since, serving as a coach, administrator and mentor.
“It was an honor and a privilege to play for and know him,” said John Stearns, who played safety under Crowder and went on to an 11-year Major League Baseball career. “He was a great leader, motivator of men.”
So much so that he had former players standing up for Oklahoma’s fight song.
“Out of respect for him,” Anderson said with a laugh, “but it was hard for me.”
