Don Faurot

Don Faurot, the man for whom Missouri’s football field is named, is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and compiled a career head coaching record of 177-96-13.

After playing football, basketball and baseball in addition to participating in a fraternity while attending the University of Missouri, Faurot spent much of the 1920s and ’30s coaching football and basketball at Kirksville State Teachers College, even leading the football team to a 26-6 win against Missouri in Columbia.

Faurot returned to Missouri as athletic director and head football coach in 1935, inheriting a program with more than $500,000 of debt — a huge sum for the time period. The Tigers also had won just two football games in the previous three years.

Faurot scheduled Ohio State nine times in 11 years, losing every game to the Buckeyes, but shedding all of the school’s debt and inventing the Split-T offense in the process — the basic concept of the Wishbone, Veer and others. Faurot served in that dual capacity for Missouri until 1956 with the exception of the three years he spent in the United States Navy during World War II.

Faurot improved the football team to 6-2-1 by his second season. He earned three Big Six titles in four seasons between 1939 and 1942, finishing two of those years with Top 10 rankings in the final AP poll. His school-record 101 wins stood for 57 years until Gary Pinkel broke it in 2013.

Faurot continued to serve as athletic director through 1967, doubling the capacity of Memorial Stadium through the course of five separate expansions.

Involved in many football-related programs and activities after “retiring” in 1967, he maintained and used an on-campus office and often visited football practice into his 90s, dying Oct. 19, 1995 in Columbia.