Walking in Dad’s Footsteps
Mike MacIntyre and Tom Hager
In Partnership with Athletes For God
When Mike MacIntyre arrived at his Dad’s funeral in January of 2016, the response was something he will never forget.
Just like Mike, George MacIntyre was a football coach too. And just like Mike, George was a brilliant football mind. More importantly, however, George was a great man and a great Christian.
Mike, of course, always knew this. He wanted to be like his Dad growing up, and then got to play for him as a football player at Vanderbilt. What Mike didn’t know was just how many of his Dad’s former players also found inspiration in him. Hundreds of former players came up to Mike and expressed what George MacIntyre meant to them, but it was a pair of stories that really stood out.
“Two of the guys came up to me and said ‘Mike ... I accepted Christ when I was 32, I accepted Christ when I was 34, because of what your dad did in college with me.’ And I’m like wow,” MacIntyre said. “That’s truly what they call planting the seed and it will grow. You put it out there, you live it, you do it, you speak it. You’re not always going to be perfect but they’re going to see something real and eventually the spirit is going to click.”
That experience lit a fire inside of Mike, who was coming off perhaps the most turbulent year of his life. His mother-in-law, Jenny, bravely lost her battle with cancer two months earlier. Things weren’t going much better on the football field for MacIntyre, either. When he went to Jenny’s funeral, the Buffaloes were in the midst of a five-game losing streak as they ended the season 4-9.
MacIntyre’s faith was being put to the test, but that only brought the coach closer to God.
“People would say ‘Oh gosh, it looks like doom and gloom,’ and you’re able to rest in His presence and it’s not doom and gloom. Those are times I look back and all the growth in those times was amazing,” MacIntyre said. “If you open your eyes and don’t look selfishly at all your situations, you just leave it to Him and look out, there’s so many people that are with you and helping you and praying for you.”
Mike knew he was growing as a Christian and human being through that year. What he didn’t know, however, was just how long he was still going to be in Boulder. When he returned from the funeral, he had just finished up his third season at CU, and had a losing record for the third straight year. At that point, MacIntyre’s record was 10-27, and 2-25 in Pac-12 play.
Everywhere he turned, the conversation was about his tenure at CU. Whether it was radio, newspapers, or Twitter, the conversation seemed inescapable. It was a trying time, but it gave MacIntyre an opportunity to live out Matthew 22: 37-39, his favorite Bible verse. In that passage, Jesus gives his disciples the two most important commandments: to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. That can be easy to do when you’re winning; it’s when you are trying to keep your job that the verse is put to the test.
“That’s the hardest part for me, to put others always in front of my own personal agenda. Really truly loving somebody that might be just like me, or might have the same views as me, or treats me bad or says bad things about me, I still have to love them,” MacIntyre said. “That’s a verse that is kind of my verse. I can do all those other (verses) but if I’m not loving people than the world doesn't see Christ in me. They don’t see it and that’s the biggest thing.”
MacIntyre was going to follow in his Dad’s footsteps yet again, because George knew a thing or two about turning a program around.
Mike MacIntyre knew he had his work cut out for him if he was to help CU turn the corner, but he knew it could be done. After all, his Dad had done it at Vanderbilt.
In a period of 32 seasons, between 1976 and 2007, George MacIntyre’s 8-4 record at Vanderbilt in 1982 was the only winning season the Commodores recorded during that entire span.
“He was a man who totally cared about people, totally loved people, was a very tough athlete, excellent coach, hard worker, unbelievable family man,” Mike MacIntyre said, “but when people met my Dad and guys that played for him, they truly knew without a shadow of a doubt that he loved them and cared for them and wanted what was best for them, not just what was best for him.”
Because of that philosophy, the players on that 1982 team were not just playing for themselves, but Coach Mac. And in turn, Mike knew he needed to coach not for himself, but rather his players. That meant making difficult decisions at times, showing some of his players tough love as they needed to mature as people or teaching others accountability as they improved as athletes.
If people on the outside didn’t know what was happening within the program, they got a quick taste of it when the Buffaloes beat Colorado State 44-7 and Idaho State 56-7 in the first two games. Then, after losing in the Big House at Michigan, they upset Oregon 41-38 and beat Oregon State to move to 4-1 on the season.
Things were beginning to change.
After losing their next game to USC, Colorado began to win. And win. And win. After the winning streak ran to five straight games, the Buffaloes hosted No. 21 Utah with a chance to win the Pac-12 South. CU, which had never finished above last place in the division since joining the Pac-12 in 2011, had a chance to become Pac-12 South Champions. Sure enough, the Buffaloes won 27-22 and the fans rushed the field to celebrate.
“I look back and all the growth in those times was amazing....You strive to be successful, you strive to do well and I think that the Lord wants us to do all that, but I also think at the same time there’s a reason for why I’m coaching, why I'm here at Colorado,” MacIntyre said. “It’s not by my choice, it’s by His choice, and there’s other reasons bigger than football.”
MacIntyre received the 2016 National Coach of the Year Award, and the team hoped to pick up in 2017 where they left off. That did not happen, as the team labored its way to a 5-7 record. It was around that time where MacIntyre realized he was spreading himself too thin. He decided to spend more time with his players, and encouraged them to spend more time with each other.
He is also spending more time listening to God. During many of his prayers, MacIntyre had been doing the majority of the talking. Lately, he has decided to do more listening.
“The thing that I started doing was just sitting down and being quiet, blocking everything out. Just sitting down and being quiet and trying to listen,” MacIntyre said. “We really just need to be listening to our heart and our spirit and our mind. When you do that, you’re not going to hear a booming voice, but it’s amazing how (you can have) certain thoughts or a peace of your soul.”