Warren Powers, former Missouri Tigers football coach, Kansas City native, dies at 80
Former University of Missouri football coach Warren Powers, who helped spur a brief revival of the program, died Tuesday night. He was 80.
Powers, who coached the Tigers from 1978-84, had been fighting Alzheimer’s disease since 2014. He had the fourth-most wins (46) of any coach in program history, behind only Gary Pinkel, Don Faurot and Dan Devine.
Howard Richards, a radio analyst for Mizzou football who played under Powers from 1978-80, announced the news on Twitter.
“Just learned from Gus Otto that former Mizzou head coach, Warren Powers, passed away late last night ... only weeks after his wife, Linda, passed away. Godspeed coach,” Richards wrote.
A Kansas City native, Powers was an all-state quarterback at Bishop Lillis who went on to play at Nebraska and for the Oakland Raiders. He started at safety for the Raiders when they won the 1967 AFL championship and played in the second AFL-NFL championship game — Super Bowl II.
Powers joined the Cornhuskers’ coaching staff in 1969 and served under both Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne there until 1976. He then took a job as head coach at Washington State for a season before taking over the Missouri program in 1978.
Powers had tremendous success in his first year as head coach of the Tigers after succeeding Al Onofrio. In his first game, Powers led Mizzou to a 3-0 upset of third-ranked Notre Dame and quarterback Joe Montana. The Fighting Irish, then coached by Devine, were defending national champions. Powers also knocked off No. 2 Nebraska on the road to end the 1978 season. That 35-31 victory remained Mizzou’s only win over the Cornhuskers until 2003.
Mizzou finished that season with an 8-4 record and Powers won the 1978 Walter Camp Coach of the Year award. He led the Tigers to four consecutive bowls and five across his tenure at Mizzou, winning three of them. He compiled a 46-33-3 record at MU.
Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione worked in Missouri’s administration in the early 1980s before becoming the school’s AD. He was immediately impressed by Powers and they remained in touch over the years.
“Some of my best and craziest Mizzou football memories were games he coached,” Castiglione said. “He was always willing to participate, go anywhere, do anything to promote Missouri.”
Powers was replaced after a 3-7-1 season in 1984, but none of his successors over the next decade-plus had near the success he did: The Tigers were unable to produce a winning season again until 1997.
He was inducted in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
“(Powers) was a big part of our football program history and heritage, and our thoughts and prayers are with him,” current Mizzou coach Eliah Drinkwitz said.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 11:58 AM.
