Published On: Fri, Apr 16th, 2021

FAU Football to Celebrate Coach Schnellenberger

The 2021 football season at Florida Atlantic University will be a season-long celebration of the life of legendary football coach Howard Schnellenberger.

Schnellenberger – the father, the founder, the architect of FAU Football – passed away in the early morning hours of March 27, just mere hours before the Owls took to the field bearing his name for their annual Spring Game. This fall and into the future, that field will have a slightly different look as “Howard Schnellenberger Field” will be emblazoned on the turf at FAU Stadium.

Later this year, FAU will hold a celebration of life event in memory of Coach Schnellenberger that will take place at Howard Schnellenberger Field inside FAU Stadium. That event to honor a man who was larger than life will happen just yards away from the larger-than-life statue of Coach Schnellenberger that has stood inside FAU Stadium since it opened in October of 2011. In the coming weeks, lighting will be added to the area, ensuring Coach Schnellenberger’s statue will be visible at all times, day and night.

The football program will be wearing both a helmet decal and a jersey patch to honor the man who was hired in 1998 to begin a football program at FAU and put a team on the field just three short years later. Schnellenberger led FAU through four years of NCAA Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision) play, including a trip to the NCAA Division I-AA semifinals just three years into the program’s existence.

Coach Schnellenberger then marshaled the Owls into NCAA Division I-A (no Football Bowl Subdivision) and led FAU to a Sun Belt Conference Championship just three years into its foray in to the highest level of college football. The Owls won the first two bowl games in the program’s history — the 2007 New Orleans Bowl and the 2008 Motor City Bowl — under Schnellenberger’s watch as well.

In addition to the aforementioned plans to honor Coach Schnellenberger, his legacy will be remembered on 2021 FAU Football season tickets.

The 2021 FAU Football season begins Sept. 4 at the University of Florida. The home opener at Howard Schnellenberger Field is set for Sept. 11 vs. Georgia Southern.

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