Pat Dye, the esteemed Auburn University football coach who was head coach of the Auburn football team from the 1981 season through the 1992 season, died on Monday at the age of 80.
Dye had been hospitalized in recent weeks with kidney issues. He also had tested positive for COVID-19, according to his family.
Dye was the head football coach at Auburn from 1981–1992. Under his leadership, Auburn went 99-39-4 over 12 seasons. Auburn won the SEC in 1983, 1987, 1988 and 1989. He also received SEC coach of the year honors in 1983, 1987 and 1988.
Along with being a head coach, Dye served as Auburn’s athletic director from 1981–1991.
The field at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium was named “Pat Dye Field” in Dye’s honor on Nov. 19, 2005. Auburn won that 2005 Iron Bowl 28-18.
Dye was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2005.
Born in Augusta, Georgia, Dye played high school football at Richmond Academy in Georgia, winning a state championship and serving as team captain. He went on to play college football at the University of Georgia and three years of professional football in the Canadian Football League.
Dye served in the U.S. Army from 1963-64, playing football for the Ft. Benning Doughboys. In 1965, he was hired for his first coaching job as part of Bear Bryant’s staff at the University of Alabama. He became head coach at East Carolina from 1974-79 then at Wyoming in 1980 before making his way to Auburn.
He is survived by four children and nine grandchildren.
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