Colorado Buffaloes to memorialize Coach McCartney with statue in the fall
- Nick Evans
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
The University of Colorado announced during the 2025 Black & Gold Spring Game that it will be forever memorializing the late coach Bill McCartney in the form of a statue.
The statue will stand along the Buff Walk, located on the east exterior of Folsom Field.
‘Coach Mac’ McCartney passed away shortly after the 2024 college football season on Jan. 10. He was the most successful coach in Colorado Buffaloes history.
McCartney led the Buffs to 93 wins from 1982-94, making him the winningest head coach in CU history. The crown jewel in his coaching tenure was leading the Buffaloes to a national championship in 1990.
Coach Mac is immortalized in the College Football Hall of Fame and coached four players, Deon Figures, Rashaan Salaam, Michael Westbrook, and Alfred Williams, to the same.
Coach Deion Sanders was asked about his reaction to the announcement, and mentioned he will try to pay respects to the late coach by mirroring his signature outfit.
“I’m gonna honor him as well,” Sanders said. “His swag, the hat he wore, the jacket he wore, I wanted to wear that today but I wanted to save it for the first game.”
Coach Sanders immediately went on to criticize the timing, as the formal announcement only happened after McCartney’s passing.
“Why’d we wait [to create the statue]?” he stated. “Wouldn’t he have wanted to see? To be involved in it? To feel it? To feel the love, respect, appreciation? ... I’m sad because I wanted him to see that.”
Coach McCartney will join Fred Folsom, another legendary Buffaloes head coach and namesake of Folsom Field, in Colorado football immortality. A memorial bust of the latter currently sits outside the south entrance of the stadium.
The program also announced the creation of the Coach Mac Memorial Scholarship Endowment for future University of Colorado students.