Mike Gottfried (born 1945) was a NCAA Division I football coach at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Kansas, and Murray State from 1978 to 1989. His overall record is 75-56-4. He coached two bowl games for the Pittsburgh Panthers, and developed Heisman candidate "Ironhead" Craig Heyward for the Panthers. He is currently an ESPN college football analyst and color commentator, and the uncle of former Alabama men's basketball head coach Mark Gottfried. [1]
Mike Gottfried's autobiography was released on September 11, 2007. It is entitled Coach's Challenge: Faith, Football, and Filling the Father Gap and is co-written by Ron Benson.
Mike Gottfried and his wife, Mickey, founded Team Focus in 2000. It is a cost free community outreach program aimed at young men without fathers. The program goal is to give opportunities for all team members to be "motivated, encouraged, and challenged". Mike felt drawn to start Team Focus because he lost his father at age eleven, and understood the difficulty and hardships young men without fathers feel. There is also a group for females called G.I.R.L.S. Network. A web site is under the Team Focus name.
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