Natonal Champion Coach and Promise Keepers Founder to Speak at Cellular South FCA Breakfast

MOBILE, AL. Former University of Colorado head football coach Bill McCartney will be in Mobile during “GMAC Bowl Week festivities” as the guest speaker at the Cellular South Fellowship of Christian Athletes Breakfast on Monday, December 19. McCartney will address local high school FCA groups, GMAC Bowl Sponsors and both participating bowl teams at the Riverview Plaza hotel; beginning at 6:45 a.m.

Tickets for the FCA Breakfast can be purchased by calling the GMAC Bowl Office at 251-635-0011. Tickets will be $20.00 for Non-FCA Members and $12.00 for FCA Members. Tables that seat 10 people are available as well. The FCA breakfast has sold out in previous years and there are a limited number of tickets available to the public.

Coach McCartney was born in Riverview, Michigan, on August 22, 1940 to his parents William and Ruth McCartney. He attended the University of Missouri, playing middle-linebacker for the school’s football team and graduated with a BA in education in 1962.

Mr. McCartney started coaching high school football in Missouri and Michigan and began coaching college football at the University of Michigan, but his career highlights focus on Colorado. In 1982, McCartney was hired to replace Chuck Fairbanks as the University of Colorado head football coach. During the next eight years, the CU football program rose to national prominence under McCartney’s guidance. His 1989-90 teams were the first CU squads to win back-to-back Big-Eight conference titles and in 1990 McCartney’s Buffs won the Associated Press National Championship by beating Notre Dame 10-9 in the Orange Bowl.

McCartney retired from coaching immediately following his teams win over the Fighting Irish in the Fiesta Bowl on January 1, 1995. He left the University of Colorado with the best record in CU history (92-55-5) and chose instead to spend time with his family and to pursue his personal relationship with God.

Mr. McCartney founded the ministry of Promise Keepers in 1990 while still coaching at the University of Colorado. Promise Keepers is a Christ-centered organization dedicated to introducing men to Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord; and then helping them to grow as Christians. He resigned as Promise Keepers President/CEO in September of 2003 and is presently the Founder and Chairman of the Board of “The Road to Jerusalem”, which is a group that works to improve relations between evangelical Christians and Messianic Jews.

Coach McCartney will add to the list of great coaches that have spoken at the FCA breakfast. Former speakers of the breakfast have included U.S. Congressman JC Watts of Oklahoma and Head Football Coaches Bobby Bowden (Florida State), Mac Brown (Texas), Larry Coker (Miami) and Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee).